When Tragedy Strikes
by JRastelliAuthor
Summary: Stephanie's journey through the loss of her husband, and how she copes with the new changes to her life. This is both a cupcake and a babe, depending on the part of the story you are in. I anticipate a Babe HEA, but let's see where the muse takes us.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: Anyone recognizable belongs to Janet Evanovich._

 _A/N: this is my first FanFiction. I'm a little terrified sharing with the world. I will try to update as much as possible but it might not be possible because of my small humans. Rated M to be safe. I have not decided if this will be a HEA yet, but I'm leaning towards it. This is completely unbetad, by the way, so sorry for any mistakes_

Chapter One

Grief is a funny thing. Not literally, of course, but philosophically strange. It makes even the most level headed individual act out of character, and I have never been accused of being level headed. As a matter of fact, I giggled to myself, the adjective most used to describe me is probably crazy. I waved off the look I was being given for giggling in the middle of a funeral and swiped the tears off my face.

The fact that it's my husband of less than six weeks funeral makes my giggle even more awkward and out of character. I was not a giggler to begin with, and funerals always made me sob. I stood, sat, and kneeled through the mass like I was supposed to, next to my saintly mother in law and _her_ bat shit crazy mother in law. I was in a fog, not hearing the words the priest was saying, but reflecting back on the last time the church had been so full and I'd been in attendance.

 _Six weeks earlier_

It was my wedding day. My second wedding day, in fact, but the only one I thought really mattered. My first marriage had been a disaster of epic proportions but this one… this one would last. I was marrying the love of my life, my childhood sweetheart, the guy who never failed to engage my most passionate emotions. Anger, love, lust… stubbornness, too, because it took him five solid years to get me here to this point.

I was marrying Joseph Anthony Morelli, and I couldn't wait to change my last name from Plum to Morelli. I couldn't wait to spend the rest of my life by this mans side.

And all of that would start as soon as I got into the off white mermaid style gown I had picked out, and I walked down the aisle. Thirty minutes and counting until that would happen. My hair was done up in a long half up half down updo, with some of my crazy brown curls artfully arranged around my face. I had pearls woven into the up portion of the updo, and my great grandmothers pearls around my throat. It was the only jewelry I was wearing, and I was honored that my father had searched them out to offer them to me.

My make up was subtle; just enough eyeliner and mascara to highlight my sea blue eyes. I wore a pale pink lip color to offset my alabaster skin. My mom and grandma had helped me put the finishing touches on my wedding ensemble with my something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. My great grandmas pearls were obviously the old, and my grandma mazur had gotten me a new lace garter as my something new. My mom gave me the ribbon from her bouquet as my borrowed. My wedding shoes, five inch high heels with a single strap were my something blue.

When I stood back and looked at myself in the mirror of the bridal suite in the back of the church, my eyes teared up. I looked happy and radiant. I looked like I was ready. And, I thought, I was. I was finally ready to be Mrs. Joseph Morelli.

If only I knew I wouldn't get to enjoy it very long.

 _The present_

After the funeral, I hosted a luncheon at the house I shared with Joe. People brought food, condolences, and curiosity. This was the Burg after all, and what better to gossip about than one of those Morelli boys. Double gossip whammy when the dead guy was a newly married homicide detective who'd been murdered in the very house that the luncheon was being held in.

I did my best to block the gossips, and the memories, out while I did my stalwart duty with my dead husbands mother bitching in my ear about everything I should have done before inviting company in. I stood tall and proud as I shook hands with everyone and worked my way around the room, even though I was dying inside. I accepted condolences and I dodged questions gracefully, or at least as gracefully as I could.

"What was it like finding poor Joseph dead in your home?"

"Was there a lot of blood? Where did he die? Like what room? Cmon Stephanie, you can't keep all the gossip to yourself. This is news! We all deserve to know!"

What is it like finding your husband dead in your kitchen? It's fucking horrifying, I wanted to snap. It's like having the one good thing, and the one safe place, ripped from you all at once. It's the feeling of never being able to walk into your kitchen without seeing the love of your life staring blankly at the ceiling in a puddle of blood. His brown eyes lifeless while his right pointer finger lays limply in the center of a heart he drew in his own blood, because he knew he was going to die and his last thought was clearly of you.

But I didn't say that. I knew better. I had to live with that all on my own.

 _One week earlier_

I'd come home from work early. Joe and I had reached an agreement about my former job two years ago, when we got engaged. He had sat me down and instead of his usual Italian outburst with the yelling and the arm waving, we had managed a civil conversation.

"Stephanie, I love you. I want to spend my life with you. But I want there to be a LIFE to spend with you. Your job is dangerous, you don't take nearly enough precautions, and you have an alarming propensity of blowing up cars." This was about the point I started to get angry. But then, "I'd like you to consider getting your PI license. You have great instincts, you never fail to find anyone your looking for, and you'd be much safer doing that than being a bounty hunter. I don't expect you to quit working and be Suzy Homemaker because I know that isn't you, but I would hope that if we ever decided to start a family you'd stay away from the riskier cases while they were young."

I had agreed to do it, and originally worked for a PI firm that was highly rated in Trenton before finally branching out on my own. I was the only PI in a tristate area to solve every single case put in front of me, and the Trenton PD eventually started to contract my services. I made good money safely for the first time ever. The agreement with Joe, when I started the job, was that unless I was doing surveillance I had to be home by six and he would always try to do the same so we could have dinner together.

So, I'd gotten home that night at four thirty having cleared my desk early. I knew something was wrong as soon as I opened the front door. The house felt still, yet sinister. My spidey senses were going haywire and I immediately started cataloging changes to my living room and dining room. There was a couch cushion on the floor, and a lamp had been shattered. There was blood on my dining room table; I mentally noted dining room tables just weren't good luck for me and my marriages since husband number one cheated on me on the one we had and the knife used to murder husband number two was left on the one I was looking at then.

There were bloody handprints on the wall leading into the kitchen and there, on my new tiled floor, was my new husband. Staring blankly at the ceiling, right pointer finger in the center of a heart drawn with his blood. I knew he was gone from the amount of blood, and the blank stare, and the sudden emptiness of my soul. I stood back in the doorway between dining room and kitchen, examining the scene visually because I was going to find the son of a bitch who killed Joe myself. I tried using my cell phone to call the station but had no signal. Whoever did this was sloppy, Because they left their signal jammer in a cops house, a cop they killed.

They'd stabbed Joe at least four times from what I could tell, in different parts of his chest. They had left the knife, although I assumed they hadn't left finger prints because it looked wiped down. They'd left a jammer, which could be traced. This person was sloppy, cocky, and I was going to make hellfire rain down upon them.

I waited while the crime scene techs processed the scene. I called Angie, Joe's mom, and told her I'd be over shortly. I knew the chief had already given her the news and I needed to melt down in a safe place and I knew that with her, there was no place safer. And as soon as I got to her home, and she opened the doors, I fell into her arms and fell apart.

Because my husband, and father of the child he had no idea I was carrying, was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: anyone recognizable belongs to Janet._

Chapter Two

 _Six days ago_

I woke up feeling like my heart had been ripped out of my chest. I was sleeping in the spare room at Ma Morelli's house, because I couldn't handle my mothers litany of "why me?" last night. Obviously, the home I shared with Joe was also off limits until it was thoroughly cleaned and even then, I doubted I'd be able to sleep there. The night before I had cried myself to sleep. I wasn't letting myself live in denial, and I wasn't going to pretend everything was right in my world.

Nothing would ever be right again.

I mourned the loss of my husband, my friend. I mourned the time I wasted not making up my mind and putting the important things first. I mourned the fact his child, who he had so desperately wanted before even knowing about it, would never know him. I mourned the loss of our home as a safe, happy place to retreat to. Basically, I just mourned.

It's funny how twenty four hours can change everything. Twenty four hours ago I was kissing Joe goodbye, on my way to the doctors. Today I was facing the knowledge I'd never kiss him goodbye again. Or hello. Or anything. He was just… gone.

New tears tracked down my cheeks, following the path their predecessors left. My heart ached, and I felt empty inside. It was like all emotion had left me, and all I was left with was this big gap where my feelings should be. I knew how I should feel, but I couldn't get the energy to feel that way. I had this overwhelming sadness, but my body couldn't handle it and processed it as empty emotion while my tear ducts proved just how hydrated I really was.

When I looked at the clock, I knew it was time to get up. There's no reason for me to be hanging out in bed at noon, no matter that I was alone. Ma Morelli was definitely up. I loved and I hated that woman. She was welcoming but critical, although she had always shown she preferred me to anyone else Joe brought home. She didn't care for how I kept house, but she appreciated how much I loved Joe. She didn't like I couldn't cook, but enjoyed the job herself. She didn't blame me for things outside of my control, though she certainly wished some of them never happened. I could deal with the relationship with her a lot better than my mother.

When I made my way down the stairs of Joe's childhood home, I could smell manicotti and garlic bread, and I knew we were having company for dinner that night. Grandma Bella, Joe's paternal grandmother, was sitting at the kitchen table kneading more dough while his mom carefully stirred red sauce on the stove. I sat down across from Grandma Bella, who used to curse me with the Eye and tell me I wasn't good enough for her favorite grandson, before we got engaged. She stood up, leaving her dough, to get me a cup of coffee with sugar and cream.

"My Joseph loved you, Stephanie. You made him happy these last few years. Thank you for that," she said to me in her heavily accented English.

More tears tracked down my cheeks into my coffee. "Thank you. And thank you for letting me stay last night… my mother…"

My mother had gotten a lot better about her constant need for approval from the neighbors and her litany of why this happened to her, but she was going to be unbearable when it came to the fact that she finally got me settled and now my husband was deceased. She was going to have to start all over on finding me a mate, after all, and I wasn't getting any younger. In fact, I was 35. Who would want an aging widow who couldn't cook or clean. Certainly no one respectable.

Ma Morelli informed me that all of my new sisters and brothers in law would be by for dinner. In this family, when someone died, you kept trucking on regardless of the newness, the grief, and the manner of death. I was welcome to join them for dinner but I didn't have to. I didn't really want to go to dinner, but I knew I should. It would be filled with laughter, tears, drunken memories of Joe, and I wasn't sure I was up to that. I figured it would be a disaster of epic proportions, or a real blast, but my money was on the disaster.

After all, most Morelli filled parties usually ended up a disaster.

 _Five weeks earlier, the reception_

I was finally Mrs. Morelli. We had said our vows and had our marriage blessed by the church, and I could enjoy guilt free orgasms for the rest of my life with my husband. I was thrilled. We had cut the cake, and danced until our feet ached, and now it was time for us to toss the bouquet and the garter and get the hell out of dodge for the honeymoon. I couldn't wait, honestly. Joe in a tux was something special and despite how beautiful my shoes were, they were starting to hurt.

I sat in the chair that was set in the middle of the dance floor while Joe retrieved the garter. He had his head under my dress as far as it could go and his tongue and teeth were pretty busy. I bit my lip to hold back a moan as his tongue stroked just above my knee. I had tingles in all the right places and I was thinking it was not a good day to have forgone panties with how wet I was.

Eventually he managed to quit teasing me and slip the garter off, before throwing it behind him to all the single men. His cousin Mooch caught it, and I suppressed a shudder as he brought it to his face for a sniff. Gross.

I tossed my bouquet and Connie, my friend and former coworker from my bounty hunting days, caught that. She suppressed a shudder at the idea of hooking up with Mooch again. It didn't end well the first time, it wasn't going to go any better the second.

Joe and I left in a limo, and went into New York to start our honeymoon together. We christened that limo, too. I was glad my dress only zipped, because getting that thing back on in the back of a limo wouldn't have been easy otherwise. We were staying at The Indigo, a classic hotel that wasn't too pricey, because part of the lure of New York was the shopping and that's how Joe got me to give up the idea of a tropical island. We were taking four days in New York and then sneaking home for the rest of the week, and we had issued the order we were not to be bothered.

When we got to our suite, Joe swung me up in his arms and carried me over the threshold. He set me down lovingly on the bed, before kneeling in front of me to slip my shoes off. He was good at that, knowing what I needed to be comfortable. He pushed me back to lay on the bed, before going into what I guessed was the bathroom. I could hear water filling the tub, and see candle light starting to flicker. He had really thought this out and was trying to make it special.

He came back into the bedroom, and grabbed my hand, pulling me up. We stood in front of the window, looking out over the lights of the city while he gently kissed my neck, sucking a little bit of flesh in before nipping it with his teeth. I moaned quietly, and he guided my zipper back down for the second time that night. We stood in front of that window, while he undressed both of us, teasing my body into oblivion. When we finally made our way to the clawfoot tub in the bathroom, we had to let some water out, before we settled back into it together.

We made love in the tub that night, and the bed, and the shower, and against the window. That was the night that we cemented our love to each other physically, and that was the night that I conceived our child, I'm sure of it.

We got the call the next morning that Mooch had had too much to drink, Joe's brother Tony had tried to break up the fight between Mooch and Connie's date, and there were two Morelli men sitting in lock up, and we had to pay for damages to the hall we had rented.

See? Morelli parties ended in disaster.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

 _The present, two days after the funeral_

I had called Trenton PD every day to try to get information about Joe's case. Either they had literally nothing or they were stonewalling me. I needed to do this, to solve this case, so that I could sleep at night. How was I supposed to sleep knowing that my husbands murderer, a cop killer, was out there?

I'd traced the signal jammer to a small electronics store in Newark. The person paid with cash, but they'd been sloppy enough to face the security camera. I had a face, but no name. I didn't have facial recognition software at home or in my office, and the police department had shoddy software and programs at best. Plus, they didn't want to play with me so I wasn't about to play with them.

I made a call to someone I never thought I'd speak to again. The press of a few buttons and then he answered. I knew he would.

"Babe."

 _Three Years Earlier_

After rolling in garbage, for the second time in as many hours, I wasn't sure why I was surprised to see him leaning against my car. Straight black hair, deep brown eyes, skin that spoke to his Cuban heritage and a body that would make a nun reconsider celibacy, he had his arms crossed and his signature blank face in place. His sunglasses were tucked into the collar of his black tee shirt, and I knew he'd have at least two guns and a knife on his person. I also knew he was commando in those black cargos.

Holy hot flash, Batman.

"Ranger," I said pleasantly.

"Babe."

He was amused. Not surprising. I was an amusing mess. I had chased my skip, Kyle Castnet, through three alleys before he got the jump on me and threw me into Cheng's dumpster. Day old lo mein, sweet and sour chicken, and wonton soup was not pleasant smelling after it had been out in the heat of Trenton, New Jersey for several hours. Then, I had found him again two blocks away, and he had repeated the same get away routine, except this time it was a butchers dumpster. Needless to say, I didn't smell good, I didn't look good, and I was an amusement.

"Did you need something?" I inquired, because I really wanted to get home and bathe this crap off of myself.

A single nod, and then, "I'm going in the wind on a mission. Don't know when I'll be back, but the intel says probably not for at least a year, probably more. Call Tank if you need anything."

Tank was Ranger's second in command at Rangeman, Ranger's high end security firm. Ranger was a bounty hunter like me when we met, but had branched out and opened his own security company. They also did occasional bodyguarding services and picked up higher end bonds that were out of my purview.

Occasionally, when I had needed it, Ranger had provided me with a job running searches, and with cars, and with a safe place to sleep. He was like my personal fairy godfather, always taking care of me, but never acknowledging there was something there. He didn't do relationships, and I don't do casual sex.

When things were good with Morelli, Ranger liked to poach kisses and touches. When things were bad with Morelli, he either fucked me or left me alone. Depended on his mood, I guess, and my emotional stability. I was never really emotionally stable, but I was at least more emotionally stable sometimes than others.

Ranger used the excuse of his missions and long absences and his enemies as why we couldn't be together, but the truth was he was scared. I knew it, he knew I knew it. He was scared to fall too hard for someone, and not be able to escape it, to be weakened by the powerful emotions of mortal men.

Now he was leaving for at least a year and he expected some kind of response.

"Okay. Be safe, Batman. Don't get shot." I leaned up and kissed his cheek, beeping my car unlocked.

I drove off and I never looked back.

 _The Present_

With that one word, I struggled not to break down and cry. It had been a little over eighteen months since I had heard from him last, and that hadn't gone very well. A lot of hurt was spewed on both sides, and even though I was sure he had forgiven me, as I had him, I didn't want to prove myself wrong by having him deny me and my favor.

"Can we meet for coffee or something?"

"Shorty's, twenty minutes." He hung up.

Twenty minutes later I was pulling into the Shorty's parking lot, looking forward to some good greasy pizza and knowing that even if this was a monumental mistake, at least I would get fed. Experience said I wouldn't even have to pay for my own food; Ranger never let me pay. Not our first meeting, not our second, and certainly not after he had killed for me. I had money with me in case, but I didn't anticipate having to use it.

He was sitting in a booth with his back to the wall, watching everything around him, when I walked in. He looked as good as he had the last time I saw him, which was no surprise. It wasn't fair, either, but I knew he worked hard to maintain his body and I'm pretty sure genetics took care of the rest.

"Thanks for meeting me. I know things didn't end well last time we talked…" I trailed off as his warm hand covered mine on top of the worn Formica table.

"I'm so sorry about Morelli, Babe. What do you need?"

I hadn't been expecting his genuine sympathy. Nor his straight up offer of help. I pulled the image from the security camera out of my purse and slid it across the table.

"This guy bought the signal jammer that prevented Joe from calling for help. He paid cash and unfortunately I don't have access to the programs necessary to identify him. The station is either completely clueless despite all the physical evidence they recovered or they're intentionally keeping me in the dark. I'm not giving this to them."

He nodded and slipped the image into his pocket. "I'll find him. Is there anything else you need?"

I shook my head no. He couldn't bring Joe back. That's what I really needed. I found myself wanting to tell him about my pregnancy. I hadn't told anyone else about the baby. It didn't seem right somehow when I never got the chance to tell Joe. I knew eventually I'd have to tell someone, well, everyone really. I wasn't going to be able to hide it for long. Baby bumps got pretty evident pretty fast.

I'd need help, too. Help with the baby, help with my business, help figuring out what to do with my home. Joe had put me on the deed when we got engaged. He'd added me to all his accounts and helped get my business off the ground. I did okay for myself and we had a good savings because most of my income ended up being discretionary. I'd have Joe's pension. I wasn't sure how I'd make it all work, but I'd figure it out.

And suddenly, with Ranger's warm brown eyes staring into mine, and his hand on top of mine, everything was feeling a little bit easier, and I knew it would all be okay.


	4. Chapter 4

_Disclaimer: anyone recognizable belongs to Janet_

 _A/N: thank you all for such amazing reviews. I've been able to post so much today because my kids and I are all sick and they sleep when they're sick. They'll all be fine, it appears to be a cold._

 _Ive also added a poll, please vote :)_

 _Warning for language in this chapter_

Chapter Four

 _Rangers POV_

In a million years I never would have expected Stephanie to call me for help. I'd heard about Morelli, and while my heart ached for her, I figured my actions eighteen months ago had closed the door on that friendship. I was glad they hadn't, because despite the bullshit I pulled, I really did need her. Whatever capacity she could give me, I needed it.

I probably should have acknowledged that long before now, maybe when I first realized it five years ago about ten seconds after meeting her. I was too stubborn and too prideful though. Now, though, I knew I'd be there for her however I could be. Anything she asked, I'd deliver.

Watching her across the table at Shorty's, she looked determined yet lost. I could tell she hadn't been sleeping well, and I knew she hadn't gone home to the house she shared with Morelli. I didn't blame her. If I'd walked in on her in the same way she'd found Morelli I wouldn't have been able to go back either.

Her emotions and thoughts sped across her face like reading words on a page. I could tell she had a secret, because there was always a little furrow on the left side of her brow when she was hiding something. I wanted to ask what it was, but that wasn't my place anymore. It never really had been. I'd been the man on the fringes, stealing kisses that didn't belong to me, and toying with her emotions semi unconsciously. I knew she didn't do casual sex, but that's all I gave her anyway. I gave her love, with strings attached.

 _Eighteen Months Earlier_

I'd come back from my mission with my head finally screwed on straight. It had been eighteen months since I'd left, since I'd seen my Babe. The mission ended up being FUBAR'd almost from the start. My intel was so far off from reality it was laughable. I don't know what those intelligence gatherers were doing, but it seemed like they had their thumbs in their asses. First off, they dropped me in Mexico for an op that needed to be run in fucking Africa. In fucking Egypt. Which is no where near Mexico.

If they couldn't even get the geography on the correct continent, what else had they gotten wrong?

It turns out, everything.

The arms dealer I was supposed to be going into deep cover for? Human trafficker. Didn't even touch guns, preferred a whip. Preferred it even more on smooth, underage white flesh.

The credentials I'd need to get into the secure facility in Egypt to check in? Wrong.

The SAT phone I requested? Not with my bag of goodies.

Right off the bat, I had had to do everything the intelligence officers were supposed to do, just to run an op that wasn't the op I was supposed to be running.

Total bullshit.

I was glad I'd charged Uncle Sam fifteen million for this within the first four hours after landing in Mexico, and I doubled that price before I agreed to make my way where I was supposed to be.

But now, now I was back in Trenton and I figured I could just show up at Stephanie's apartment and let her know I finally had my head screwed on straight. I wasn't going on anymore missions for the government, my contract was up. My previous statements about being unable to do relationships were still true, and I still had enemies, but I figured so did she.

I broke into her apartment like I had so many times before and immediately noticed it was empty. Devoid of furniture, devoid of Stephanie. I had no clue what piece of shit she was driving now, so I hadn't bothered to check the parking lot. It was four am and I wasn't going to go bothering her parents if she was staying with them. I'd just get a report from Tank first thing after the morning meeting.

I slugged through my workout, through the meeting, and then cornered Tank in the conference room, using my key fob to turn off the cameras in there.

"What's the update on Stephanie? She's not in her apartment anymore?"

I don't know why I phrased it like a question, I knew she wasn't. She'd never been so desperate as to sell the furniture before, and her hamster, Rex, wasn't there.

"No, she's not. She's living with the cop now," Tank started, "they've been engaged about six months. She's got a new job, and they've got their wedding date set for next year. Summer. I got my save the date thing in the mail last week. It looks like you've gotten one, too, I left it on your desk with your other mail."

I stormed into my office, not believing what I was hearing. They'd never gotten that far in their relationship before. They'd been engaged, yeah, but Morelli always screwed it up. They'd never had to put money down on something before.

I found the envelope on my desk immediately.

"Mr. & Mrs. Francis Plum cordially invite you to save the date of June 27, 2015 to celebrate the nuptials of their daughter Stephanie Michelle Plum and Joseph Anthony Morelli."

Also in my envelope, along with the beautiful pale blue calligraphied notecard, was a letter folded up neat and small.

"Dear Ranger,

I hope this letter finds you well. If you're reading this, that means you know my big news- I finally agreed to marry Joe. And we're actually going through with it this time. Weird, right? But we're happy. Don't ever doubt that. I found a new job, with McCann's Private Investigative Services. I got my PI license a few months ago. Joe finally found the right way to ask me to give up bond enforcement, and he made a point I couldn't refute. I'm pretty good at my job. I make more than decent money. I also moved in with Morelli. We're slowly making his house ours.

Bob ran off a few weeks after you left. We haven't found him yet and at this point I don't think we're going to.

I wanted you to know, I'll always treasure what you were able to give me, both in terms of mentorship and friendship. I don't think what we had really went beyond that, except for the sexual chemistry.

I hope you're able to find your Joe someday. I hope you'll be able to be happy, with someone and not alone. No one should be alone. Be safe, Batman. Don't get shot, and I hope if you feel comfortable with it, you'll come to the wedding-as my friend.

Always, Stephanie."

I crumbled the letter in my fist, before thinking it through and smoothing it back out. I knew where she worked, I knew where she lived, and I was going to go get my girl back.

 _Present Day_

I'd never gotten her back. As I sat in my office after our lunch at Shorty's, running the grainy image through facial rec, I considered the fact I probably never would. You don't show up after somebody's husband is stabbed violently to death, especially when you tried to derail their entire relationship from the start in one way or another, and get the girl. The world doesn't work that way, and quite honestly if it did, I'd think pretty poorly of Stephanie.

Just because I could, and because I knew she had a secret, I started a search on her while facial rec was running. I input "Stephanie Michelle Morelli, née Plum, DOB 10/12/1980, New Jersey" and waited for things to pop up. I wanted everything new, and I knew it was sneaky and underhanded but I wanted to make sure she wasn't in danger. At least, that's what I told myself.

Everyone always assumes I'm some master of self control but the reality is, people just don't know when I'm doing things like this. I can keep a secret, I can keep my body under control, but I was absolutely powerless against letting my mind roam free and my curiosity get the better of me. Where Stephanie Plum was concerned, I always let my curiosity get the better of me and I always came running.

Whether it was with cars, money, affection, food… I always gave to her when she was in need. It's why I didn't balk at running this search on her mystery man. It's why I was discreetly looking into Morelli's murder myself. It's why I met her for lunch even though I have a thousand other things I need to attend to today. None of them matter, when she asks me for help, when she needs something. I could let my business burn to the ground, and I'd still have everything I needed to get by if she was okay. I had money, and money can always be made.

Just then, the computer dinged. A dual result had shown up. I had the guys name, Alan Castnet, and I had Stephanie's new information. I started a search on Alan, a deep search, and started reading through everything that had changed in Stephanie's life starting three years ago. I'd never bothered after coming back from Egypt and fucking up so outrageously.

Other than two speeding tickets and getting her PI license, not much had changed on the legal front. She had her new name, but that was more of a civil thing. Joe got the speeding tickets wiped from her driving record, but they still showed up on a deep search as having occurred. There was new financial info, she had switched banks and been added to Morelli's accounts, had her name on the deed to his house. Her name was also on his car. They had a joint savings account with a balance of $98,764. Most of that looked like her income from her new job as a PI. She had a business license, and a business account which was also seriously plush. Blue Private Eye was the name of the business. It fit her.

She was on his pension, and his life insurance as a beneficiary. She would hold medical insurance through the PD for six months after his death. And there, just there, under her new medical insurance was her records.

I skimmed through those, before my eyes landed on an appointment the day Morelli died. An appointment at an OBGYN, and a record that listed her as confirmed…

Pregnant.

When tragedy strikes, it strikes hard.

I had not expected that.

Even more, I hadn't expected the triple blow to my heart- that she was carrying someone else's baby, and the part I really struggled with, that she was truly alone to do it, and the part that as a father myself would have brought me to my knees if I was standing, I felt… sympathy?... some emotion… for Morelli, because he would never get to meet his child and he would have been a fantastic father. And the chance to be that amazing father was ripped from him.

As a friend, I'd be there for Stephanie and her baby.

As a father, I'd help her for Morelli, because as much as he and I didn't get along, it is what he would have wanted. What I'd have wanted if the positions were reversed.

As a mercenary and security specialist, as somebody who found people for a living, I'd find the son of a bitch who murdered Joseph Morelli.

And I'd start with Alan Castnet.

 ** _REMINDER. PLEASE vote in the poll I just published_**.


	5. Chapter 5

_Disclaimer: Anyone recognizable doesn't belong to me._

 _A/N: I did this chapter a bit differently. I bounced between two POV, but no flashback. There's a time jump to two weeks ahead, and that becomes the new present. Also, reminder, there's a poll on my profile. If you guys could take that, I'd greatly appreciate it._

Chapter Five

 _Present Day_

I sat in my office at Blue Private Eye and watched the birds on the tree outside my window. I had a few case files on my desk, the usual affairs and lost items I got. I also had two missing persons cases, that I promised to look over before either taking them or referring them to a different firm. Normally I referred them to McCann but something about these two stuck out at me and I felt they might be above McCann's pay grade. I'd been thinking, and talking to Joe about, contracting with other companies when it came to certain cases. I had a contract with the PD but I was considering branching out to private security firms, my first choice of which was Rangeman. I wanted to offer them the option before their competitors but I hadn't wanted to work with Ranger because I hadn't wanted to reach out. That was a moot point now.

He was due in my office in twenty minutes to go over the results of the facial rec and the background search he'd done on the guy. I was looking forward to getting a lead on the bastard that killed my Joe. I couldn't sleep at night, and I knew that every moment this guy was out was another moment he could destroy someone else's life. It was him getting further away from justice. I couldn't let that happen.

I had moved back to our house three days after Joe's funeral. It was empty and quiet and filled with memories; the good and the bad. All the Pino's subs, the ball games, the fights, the make up sex… times we would come home and Bob had eaten something obscure. The rug burn I got on my back from sex on the staircase. Picking paint colors for the office and the kitchen. The random dead guy in the basement. When I moved in for the final time. The fight where we broke up over peanut butter of all things.

All this remembrance took up the time before Ranger's appointment, and when he knocked I bolted upright from where I'd started slouching in my chair. I swiveled around to face him and disjointedly thought, he still really does looks fantastic. He hadn't aged. It wasn't a trick of the fluorescent light in Shorty's. He really did look that good. He slipped a file across the desk at me, and I opened it to reveal a DMV sheet and several pages worth of criminal record and information.

Alan Castnet. 37. Two brothers, Kyle and Donnie. Kyle was much younger. Donnie was two years older than Alan. Parents deceased. Traffic violations, petty theft, carrying without a permit. Nothing violent, nothing recent. Nothing outstanding or eye popping about him.

The younger brother, Kyle. His name rang a bell. I thought about it for roughly thirty seconds before my eyes popped open.

"The brother, Kyle. I know him, I've picked him up. He was who I was going after when you said bye three years ago. I'd rolled in trash, remember?" A single nod and a half smile. I started running his name through my search programs, continuing to speak, "when I picked him up, he had jumped on an assault charge. It was an assault against a minor, some young kid who hit on his girlfriend. The girl bailed on him, but not before telling me he had a history of getting a bit too physical."

Just as I finished, his new criminal record pinged on my screen. I read it off to Ranger: in addition to the prior assault against a minor, he had two charges of sexual assault, one rape, and one manslaughter on his record. Two counts of bestiality, too. The manslaughter charges were dropped because it occurred during a bar fight, and there was no real way to tell who had actually stabbed the guy. The stabbing aspect interested me, though, because of his brother being the guy who bought the signal jammer that prevented Joe from calling for help. It seemed too coincidental. I told Ranger so.

"I'd appreciate if you could follow through on this lead, I don't feel like at this point it's safe for me to do so," I informed him.

"Because you actually recognize the danger, or because of the baby?" He asked gently.

I sighed. I should have known he'd figure it out.

"Both."

He nodded once, understanding I wasn't ready to talk about it. I honestly wasn't sure I ever would be. It had been two weeks since he died, and two weeks since I found out about my peanut, but I couldn't bring myself to talk about it, to tell anyone about it. I only wanted to share the news with one person. I'd never be able to.

I needed to get back to business though, so I slid the two missing persons cases across the desk to Ranger. As he opened them, I explained about my idea for contracting with security firms on specific cases, at a flat percentage rate of the collected fee. I would work anything and everything office related, including meeting with clients initially, but any actual footwork would be done by Rangeman. When Rangeman came to their final conclusion in a case, a representative would have to be present to explain the findings to the client, but I would also still be there. I would also require access within my office to all search programs and electronic forms of information gathering that Rangeman had.

"I'd have to talk it over with the core team, but I don't see a real issue with it. It's actually a brilliant idea. Can you have a proposal ready by next week?"

I opened my bottom right desk drawer with my finger print, and slid a file out. "Here. I already drew one up."

He looked through it before looking through the missing persons cases again. "Why do you think they're related?"

"Spidey senses, plus the timeline. Look at the dates they went missing. There are few other similarities, but they went missing on the same day, at the same place, five years apart."

He acknowledged that with a tilt of his head.

"But, one is female, one is male. One is affluent, one is poverty level. They're twenty years apart in age. They're from different places. They use different banks, their jobs don't appear to overlap at all. They're more dissimilar than they are similar."

This was all true, but I wasn't discounting a connection. My senses didn't tingle for nothing. But I also knew, because they'd tingled, I couldn't be objective. I also was going to limit my fieldwork because I had this tiny piece of Joe growing inside me and I couldn't fathom doing something that could take that away. My peanut was the most important thing. That meant it was imperative to me that Ranger and Rangeman take on this case. Even if they treated them as two completely different cases, I just needed them solved. I told Ranger this and he finally agreed as he stood up.

"This one is on me. It's not part of our contract, if my team agrees to the proposal, and it's completely free. Think of it as an early baby gift."

I tilted my head, studying him, and finally acquiesced to the request. Who was I to look free in the face and say no? Stephanie Morelli liked free.

 _Two weeks later_

We were signing the contracts today. Ranger's core team, which included him, Tank, Bobby- the company medic, and Rodriguez, the dude who always overloaded me on searches when I worked here, had painstakingly gone through literally every word of the contract until everyone could agree on terms. I fought them on what they wanted, too. They liked the proposal, with the exception of the percentage of the fees, having to give me access to the software, and the whole client communication when they had their findings part.

I'd originally only wanted to give Rangeman 20% of the fee, but they haggled me to 30%. They finally agreed to give me the software, except for two programs which I didn't have the government clearance to use outside of the building. If I needed to use those programs, I could do such on a secure laptop I would leave here. I could print information from those programs and take it with me though. It was finally agreed that client communication would need to come from either Ranger, Bobby, or Hal, who was part of the leadership team, but not a core member. Tank was uncomfortable with people, as they frequently were with him since he was a 6 ft 6 black guy built like a, well, Tank, and Rodriguez wouldn't meet with clients because he refused to leave the building. He was apparently a hermit. Or a rat, always scurrying in the dark.

We had our meeting to sign everything at noon, and I also enjoyed a light lunch with the guys, before telling them I needed to head out to another appointment. Today was my first ultrasound. I was twelve weeks pregnant and they should be able to get a good image.

I hadn't experienced any morning sickness or cravings, just a little bit extra fatigue around the three pm mark. I wasn't sure if this was cause for concern, but I was going to bring it up to the doctor.

I hurried across town, anxious to see my baby, anxious to have confirmation this last piece of Joe was alright. I checked in, and I went through the whole process of peeing in a cup and having my weight and blood pressure checked, before going back to wait in the waiting room to be called for my ultrasound. I was nervous, scared, alone. And then, I wasn't.

I don't know how he knew, and I don't know why he bothered, but I was grateful all the same. Because there, walking towards me, was Ricardo Carlos Manoso. Ranger.

But he was dressed like Carlos and he had his smile blasting like Carlos, and I knew that this was my friend. Not my former lover, employer, mentor. This was my friend.

I knew without asking he was here because he knew I would need somebody. And I knew that deep down, since Joe couldn't be here, he would want Carlos here. So I wasn't alone, and I wouldn't feel like I had to keep it all together.

When they called my name, I stood up on shaky legs. He grabbed my arm, gently, and hooked it with his to lead me back to the room. They had me lie down on a table and spread this strange goop on me. They had a TV set up on the wall across from the table, just so I could see what was happening. I couldn't tell what the images were, but I gripped Rangers hand when I heard the soft thwump thwump of the heartbeat. Then I damn near broke it when over the first heartbeat, I heard an unmistakable second.

"Well, Mrs. Morelli. Looks like you're having twins. Congratulations."

 _Ranger POV_

When I heard the second heartbeat, and located the second little baby on the screen, my jaw dropped. It literally dropped. Stephanie's hand tightened so hard on mine I was afraid she was going to break it, and I knew that the shock was real for both of us. What in the hell was she going to do by herself with two little Morelli hellions.

I didn't realize I'd said that out loud until she laughed. Normally she was the one who spoke her thoughts aloud.

"God only knows. But I'll have to figure it out. I wish Joe could be here."

"I wish that for you, too, Babe. But I'm not a miracle worker and if I could switch places with him I would."

She deserved every happiness, and I knew that part of that happiness included her husband being alive and by her side. She deserved to have someone who could be there every step, who could share in her joy. Morelli was that person for her.

We went to the exam room next, where the doctor answered questions Stephanie had and gave her her official due date, along with things to watch out for. They set her up with extra ultrasounds, and told her she was higher risk because she was 35, and that twins also carried an extra risk. By mid March, Stephanie would be welcoming her babies, plural, and I vowed to myself and to Morelli I'd do everything I could for them.

After all, Stephanie had always done everything she could for me and my men, I owed her the same respect.


	6. Chapter 6

_Disclaimer: not mine_

 _a/n: another reminder to take the poll! At this point we should all know about the twins. I did something a little different this chapter and I hope you'll like it!_

Chapter Six

That night I dreamed the sweetest dreams. Joe was there, here, with me. I was round with his children, and he was talking to my belly. His curly dark brown hair grown just a little bit too long, his big chocolate eyes staring up at me from where he had kneeled between my legs with his head on my bump. He was showing me how much he loved me, how much he loved our babies, with just the look in his eyes, and the feel of his hands.

I woke up yet again with tears streaming down my face, sad that he would never get to meet his kids and scared of doing it all alone. I decided to go visit my mom, bum breakfast and some coffee. The doctor had told me I could have some, and I was very lucky to not have morning sickness. She assured me that it was okay, but that most women suffered pretty strongly with it, especially those who were having multiples.

The doctor had also encouraged me to walk, but to be careful of the heat. It was late August and from about nine am on it was going to be hot enough to make breakfast on your driveway. I'd walk to my parents, I decided, rather than drive. It was just a few blocks. Then, when I left, I'd have my mom drive me if it was too hot. Honestly, she'd probably insist after hearing our news. Well, my news. The news.

I walked in the house from the back door. My mom and Grandma Mazur were both sitting at the kitchen table having a cup of coffee and both of them jumped up when I walked in to start a fresh pot and fresh breakfast. Their Burg manners wouldn't allow them to feed me hour old breakfast and coffee.

As they puttered around, they kept exclaiming they'd missed me and asking how I was doing. Outside of a few texts and a few stray calls they'd left me alone to grieve. I knew they came by while I was gone because they left food in my fridge with instructions on how to heat it. I was so appreciative of the space they were giving me to grieve and put my life back together.

When they sat back down with me, both staring like I was a particularly fascinating zoo exhibit, I started eating. I was used to the staring. Everyone stared at me. First when I was Calamity Jane the Bounty Hunter, then when I'd be on again off again with Joe, then when we got engaged while they waited for the other shoe to drop… then when the other shoe did drop, they stared at me in pity. I hated that.

"So, I'm twelve weeks pregnant with twins," I said while I ate my eggs, just as my mom took a sip of coffee.

She spewed it on the table, while Grandma laughed beside her.

"I knew those Morelli boys were more than just good looks!"

"Oh my god, Stephanie. Did Joseph know? Why are you just now telling us! Does Angie Morelli know? Oh my god, what are you going to do?" My mother was starting to fret.

I shook my head sadly. "Joe didn't know. I was going to tell him the night he… that night. I'd just found out for sure myself. I needed time to mentally process everything and come to terms myself. The only other person that knows is Ranger, you remember him? His company is doing some contract work with mine. Joe and I had been talking about that before… anyway, Ranger ran a new background check on me and found out from that. Then he stopped by while I was waiting for my ultrasound. He's been a good friend. I only found out about the twin part yesterday."

So I fudged the truth a little. He did run a check on me, and we were doing business together, but mom didn't need to know about me looking for Joe's murderer. She'd have kittens. Then she'd tell Ma Morelli and she'd have kittens.

"I'd appreciate it if you could keep this between us. You can tell Daddy but I want to tell Ma Morelli myself and be in charge of when everyone finds out."

"Of course, Stephanie. This is such good news!"

My mom had taken to finding the good in a situation. I was having twins, and instead of focusing on Joe being gone, she was focusing on them. That was good. I could deal with that. Of course, when I refused to let her move in six months from now, she'd be less than pleased. But I wanted to try to do this on my own, because that's what a mother is, right? Strength? A visual and physical representation of emotional strength?

Joe and I had talked about that, before we made the decision to stop using birth control. I wasn't sure I was cut out for motherhood.

 _Four Months Ago_

 _Joe POV_

I couldn't believe we were just five weeks away from our wedding. I never thought I'd get Stephanie this close to marriage, let alone do it with her perfectly serene-or as serene as she gets- living in my house. Every time we'd tried to get there before she'd freaked out or I'd been unwilling to budge on some issue I thought was vitally important. News flash: it never was. Compromise had always been possible. Stephanie was not housewife material. She would burn my kitchen down and then kill me with my own gun if I ever tried to insist she stay home and cook and clean for me all day.

So you could have knocked me over with a feather when over dinner, she blurted out she wanted a baby and to stop birth control. I don't think I kept the surprise off my face very well, because she immediately shut her mouth and ran upstairs. I heard the door to our bedroom slam shut from my seat in the living room and I knew it would be locked too.

Having been dealing with Stephanie for thirty years, give or take, from even before the choo choo incident, I knew the appropriate thing to do when she closed herself off was give her a little bit of space. You had to time it just right. I had to give her enough time to cry and beat me up for my look of surprise, a little bit more time to reconsider just blurting it out, but not enough time she started calling me names, assuming I thought she'd be a bad mom, and definitely not enough time to beat herself up and change her mind.

The truth was, Stephanie was the only person who doubted her ability to be a mother. I knew she did, and I knew my senseless questioning of her year after year and trying to force the Burg mold on her, had only cemented that in her mind. But Stephanie loved with her entire being, and she would go to any lengths to protect those she loved. She'd proven it time and again. She went to great lengths for strangers, too, so what she'd do for her own kids? Probably no limit. That's all that really mattered with kids. You just had to love them enough.

I looked at the clock and figured I was in the perfect window of time, so I went and knocked on the bedroom door. She told me to come in and I could hear a bath running. I followed the sound and sat on the toilet lid watching her in the tub I'd gotten just for her.

"So, Cupcake. You said something downstairs that I found pretty interesting," I started, while she grimaced, "and I wanted you to know that even though you surprised me, I can think of nothing I want more."

I knew that was the right way to start that conversation, because it explained my face and it told her it had nothing to do with the idea, just that I hadn't expected it.

"Really? You'd be okay with that? I'm not like your mom or mine, Joe. I won't be able to be the super hands on every moment of every day mom that they were."

I knew that. I didn't want that if it wasn't what she wanted. I told her so, and then I elaborated, "there's no law that says to be a good mom you have to be there every second. There are really nice daycares and preschools and any of those would be acceptable. You're going to be a great mom because of how you love. That's what matters."

And staring at her in the bath tub, with my pants getting a lot tight, I figured now was the perfect time to start making beautiful babies with the woman who would shortly be my wife.

So I slipped off my socks, jeans, and tee and slid into the tub behind her.

I did some of my best work in our tub.

The next morning, I woke up to Stephanie staring at me. She had her hands under her cheek on the pillow by mine. She was smiling, but it was still a little bit weird. I smiled back and she reached a hand out to brush some of the too long curls off my forehead.

"You're going to be the best daddy, baby. I'm sorry I held out so long."

I grabbed her hand and placed a kiss in the center if her palm.

"I'm only 37. I've got plenty of good years left, Cupcake, to enjoy any children we're blessed with. And I will only be as good a parent as my partner, my wife. You. So I know I'll be the best, but only because I have no other option with you by my side."

We spent the rest of the morning in bed, loving each other.

 _Present Day_

 _Stephanie's POV_

Now that I'd told my mother, I had to face the even harder conversation. The one with Joe's mom and Grandma Bella.

Sigh.


	7. Chapter 7

_Diverso- different_

 _pazzo- crazy_

 _una famiglia- a family_

 _madre- mother_

 _stupefacente- amazing_

 _una preziosa- precious one_

Chapter seven

I arranged to have dinner at Ma Morelli's house with the rest of the family on Sunday. I knew that would mean that all of Joe's sisters and brothers, their kids, and spouses, plus great aunt Mary Elizabeth would be there. She was a nun, but she had a wicked sense of humor and loved a few brandies in the evening. Personally I felt celibacy and dedicating ones life to God entitled you to get snookered every once in a while, and if you liked to make jokes about genitalia, well, you've earned it.

I figured I would also go to mass that morning, because even though neither Joe nor I were very frequent visitors there we were catholic, and we'd talked about raising our kids the same way. I hadn't really wanted the responsibility that came with that. Joe had wanted them to have the security and the moral and ethical teachings that came with it, not to mention the community and stability.

That was the one thing he'd been adamant on and I was going to honor his wishes on that.

By the time Sunday rolled around I was thinking I didn't really feel like going to mass, because I hadn't been sleeping well and it felt like ten am was just too early on my day off. But I had promised myself, and I had made a promise to Joe, and I was going to honor it. So I powered through my shower, blow drying my hair, and my make up, and when I went to the closet I grabbed the only pair of nice slacks that still fit over my slight bump and I got myself dressed. I'd picked a pale blue tunic shirt, that still had really good give over my belly, but it was also beginning to tighten. I guessed that would get really bad soon, and I had to start shopping for maternity clothes soon.

Mass was the same routine, sit, stand, kneel, stare at Stephanie in sympathy and confusion. Whys she here? She never comes here! I breathed a sigh of relief before getting in my car and heading to Ma Morelli's. It was a zoo by the time I got there, most everyone already there. The only car I could see missing was Anthony's, Joe's oldest brother. He had five or six kids last I counted and it took him and his wife awhile to arrive anywhere.

I let myself in and stood on the fringes of the living room, where Grandma Bella and Aunt Mary Elizabeth were sitting on a sofa and my sister in law Cathy was playing referee to her two boys. They were both over ten and they were both true Morelli boys; they played hard and rough, and had an early interest in girls-one of whom they were currently fighting over.

There were more kids, and more aunts and plenty of drinks being passed around. The smells were great, I figured manicotti, chicken piccata, and homemade cannoli. Only Grandma Bella had noticed me and she was watching me carefully, considering. I figured she'd have a vision, but instead she nodded my way before making excuses to Mary Elizabeth and grabbing my arm to pull me outside.

We started walking down the sidewalk, with her holding onto my arm, and got a few houses away before she finally spoke.

"When my Joseph bring you home, I no like you. You are, how do you say, diverso? You no how I picture his wife. You do pazzo things, si? But my Joseph, he love you. I learn love you too. Joseph tell me, before he go to Lord, he says 'Grandma Bella, we're trying to start a family. I never thought Steph would want that.' I tell him, every woman wants una famiglia. Maybe they just unsure of how good a Madre they'll be. I tell him, your Stephanie, even for how diverso she is, she is to be stupefacente."

I had some tears rolling down my cheeks and Bella stopped, reaching up to wipe them.

"Don't cry, una preziosa. You do right by my Joseph. He not here to see it, but I am. Angela is here, si? And you will do stupefacente as Madre to your bambinos. I know they are, how you say, twins? They will be happy and loved. I see these things. I know. God is with you, and my Joseph, your Joseph, he is here."

She patted my heart and I could see in her wise, albeit crazy, brown eyes that she was sincere. And knowing that she was on my side now, even after all this time, warmed my heart. We started walking back, and I felt closer to her than I ever thought I would. She banged the door open on her way in, and I could see that at least Anthony and three of his hell children were there now. His wife must have dropped them off, because their van wasn't outside.

Everyone looked up, and Bella exclaimed "Stephanie has news to share, everyone to the front rooms!"

When everyone had arrived, I stood in front of the picture window and looked at my extended family, before taking a breath.

"In Late February to Mid March, this family is gaining two new members. I found out on the saddest day of my life, and it took me some time to find comfort in the knowledge, and I wanted to come to terms with it myself before sharing. I hope everyone can understand that…"

I was cut off by a big hug from Ma Morelli, who had tears streaking her face too. This was a stoic woman. She never cried. She hadn't cried when Old Man Morelli died, she hadn't cried at our wedding, she didn't cry at Joe's funeral. So the tears were alarming. She had her hands on my stomach, and was openly crying into my shoulder, muttering prayers and things I couldn't catch about Joe.

"Oh Stephanie."

That's all she managed to eke out when her tears dried up, before they started again and she was running back to the kitchen. She came running back out with a giant serving platter, red solo cups – something I was shocked to see she had in her home – with three bottles of champagne, a bottle of white grape juice, and four cannoli on a little plate. She came right to me, setting the platter on the coffee table and pouring me a glass of white grape juice. She handed me the little plate of cannoli and started pouring the champagne for everyone but the kids under 14, who got white grape juice. There weren't many little kids, most were 14 or over now. Joe's oldest niece was 22.

There was some griping that I was getting the cannoli fresh and before dinner, but it quieted down fairly quickly when Ma Morelli raised her glass in a toast.

"To Joseph's famiglia. May he always watch over them from heaven, and be present in all of our hearts!" Everyone drank, and then grandma Bella raised her glass.

"To Stephanie, for courage to be mother to Morelli bambinos, and for honoring our famiglia even without her Joseph. We are her famiglia too."

Later that night, I was in bed by myself when I got several texts in a row. I had texted Ranger to tell him I wouldn't be in my office tomorrow for our meeting, but he could call me or we could do the meeting another day. I let him know I'd told both families and I was mentally, physically, and emotionally drained. One text was from him, but I saved that for last.

Joe's sister Cathy: **let me know if you need any help at any point. Xoxo**

Mary Lou: **omg you didn't tell me! Let me know how I can help -MLS**

Grandma Mazur: **did the old bat flip her lid?**

Connie: **congratulations! I'd like to help with the baby shower**

Mom: **Angie Morelli is so thrilled! She's told half the Burg already, I had to unplug the phone!**

Tank: **congrats, little girl. I got you on cradles**.

Tank had attached pictures of what looked like cradles built directly out of a tree trunk

Lula: **girl, why didn't you tell me? Yo ass owe me some donuts, havin to find this info out thru Connie is traumatizin**

Ranger: **I'll come to you tomorrow for lunch. We'll have the meeting another time. Proud of you, Babe. You're going to be the best mom.**

I replied to Cathy and Mary Lou with a thank you, told Grandma that Bella had not flipped her lid, ignored Mom, told Connie sure, ignored Tank, told Lula I'd call her tomorrow and then sent Ranger a reply

 **I really really hope so, Carlos. See you after noon tomorrow. Bring me white grape juice?**

I fell asleep before he could answer, but I did so with a smile on my face


	8. Chapter 8

_disclaimer: no one belongs to me_

 _A/N: I've gotten a few messages about naming the children after Joe- I don't do juniors. I don't think Stephanie would either, because she does things so differently. She's her own person and I firmly believe she'd want her child to be the same. That said, I do appreciate the input! I also appreciate all of you who have taken the poll attached to my profile. Please continue to do so, I haven't gotten to the point yet where I decide whether they're identical or fraternal, nor have I decided yet if they are identical if they will be B/B or G/G._

Chapter Eight

 _Ranger POV_

I walked up the front steps to Stephanie's house, anxious to see her again. We'd been texting back and forth since her appointment. I knew from Rachel that pregnancy made you tired and I figured having two humans growing inside of you only made it worse. I'd found out some information on the missing persons cases that Stephanie was convinced were related and I had planned to share it at the meeting, but I knew she needed a friend not a business partner right now. I'd been having the strangest dreams.

 _Thursday Night_

For some reason I was sitting in the sand at Point Pleasant. I never sat in the sand here, because it was so different from Miami beaches. Not bad, just not what I was used to. The sun was setting, and hardly anyone was here. As a matter of fact, I couldn't see anyone at all, except a family with two kids in the distance.

From where I was sitting, one of them looked like Stephanie and one looked like a young Morelli.

"That's because it is us, Manoso. That's us almost thirty years ago."

I whipped my head to my right to see Morelli sitting next to me in the sand, barefoot in blue jeans and a long sleeved white Henley. What?

"It's a dream, man. I'm in your dreams and you're in my memory. Steph and I only came here a few times together as kids, but the memory you're in is her birthday weekend. She turned 7 and I was 9. She pushed her parents for weeks to just let her invite me and Mary Lou here for lunch and cake and a walk on the beach."

I could see now, as they came closer, that Stephanie was in a denim jacket and jeans and that young Morelli was dressed the same. It looked like Stephanie's dad and Mrs. Morelli were the only adult there.

"Steph's sister and Mary Lou both came down with the flu. My mom joined Frank with me here just in case I started acting like an ass and I needed to go home. The truth was, even then, I knew she was it for me. I knew I loved her. Maybe I didn't always treat her exactly like she deserved, but she was the only woman I ever considered marrying."

I knew what he was saying. I'd married Rachel just to give Julie my name. In the end, even that wasn't something that stuck, just like I hadn't. Aside from my family, the only person I'd stuck around for was Stephanie and I finally figured out why when it was too late. Stephanie was it for me, too, but I had to assume that she had found her one and only in Morelli.

"So why am I haunting your memory and why are you haunting my dreams instead of your wife's," I asked him.

He sighed, shaking his head. "I'll get to her but I go where I'm needed. Stephanie is telling her parents about the babies later today. She'll tell my family on Sunday. She's scared, and she needs her friends, but she's too stubborn to ask. If you just show up, she'll ignore you. Check in with her, but don't overcrowd."

I knew all of that about her. I hadn't known when she would tell her family, but I figured it would be soon.

"And Manoso?"

I looked at the dead guy next to me, and followed his gaze to him and the girl we both loved all those years ago, holding hands on the beach in October as kids.

"Check out registrations of all vehicles in that stores parking lot on the days leading up to those people going missing. You'll find something."

 _Sunday Night_

 _Joe POV_

Well, shit, I got Manoso again. I didn't want to haunt his dreams. I wanted to talk to my wife. I wanted to haunt her dreams. Instead I got her ex lover. Don't get me wrong, I think he's psycho, but I also fully respect his job skills even if they're legally questionable, and I appreciate the way he always watched out for Cupcake even though it was never his job.

This time I picked a different memory, back of the church the day Stephanie married Dickie Orr. I'd been there, although she didn't know. I'd never told her. She looked a lot better and a lot happier at our wedding.

I told Manoso this when he showed up next to me, confused. I could read his thoughts even though he kept them to himself- of course she was happier with me.

I wasn't really comfortable being in his head, but then again, I knew he wasn't happy in my memories. Plus I was dead, and that's mostly what was pissing me off. I knew he had run dangerous ops for the government and somehow he was still alive. I was stabbed to death in my own goddamn house by a complete and utter idiot no one could catch, because of a case file my wife hadn't even agreed to take yet.

"She told my family today. I know she asked you to pick her up some white grape juice, but she's also going to want Ben & Jerrys Cherry Garcia. She's not going to realize she wants it until just before you're supposed to get there."

"Isn't that giving information to the enemy?"

"No. That's taking care of my kids and my woman. I'm not there anymore. I never will be again. I'm jealous that you got to be there to see my kids the first time. I'm jealous you get to be there for her and you'll get to physically see them grow up. I'm jealous, because one day she won't be my wife anymore… she'll be yours. But I don't want her to be alone, and for every single thing I hate about you, there's another I like. And frankly, most of my objections to you were because you could operate outside the law, and because with any real effort, Stephanie could have been yours."

And wasn't that a painful truth?

We watched as Dickie and Stephanie walked back up the aisle as husband and wife. Her dress wasn't her style at all, all the fuss that her mom, Helen, had always wanted but nothing like Stephanie liked. Her smile didn't reach her eyes, and that was a shame because when it did, the blue sparkled even more. I'd wanted to swim in her eyes before, just because they reminded me of the ocean.

Ranger noticed that too.

"I was at your wedding, you know," he suddenly burst out.

"I know. Why'd you come?"

"She wanted me there, once. I got the invitation to save the date. Just because I made a mess of our friendship doesn't mean she wasn't still my friend, regardless of what I said."

I laughed lightly, "made a mess of it? Oh man, Manoso, you more than made a mess of it. But then, you know that."

"I stayed only long enough to see she was happy, really truly wanted you, and then I left. I'm not into self harm, and staying to watch her marry you would have been that."

His memory floated across my mind, watching the way she looked at me. I could feel his pain as he recalled that day, and damn, her ass looked even better in her dress from the back of the church than it did from five feet away. She was truly happy, you could feel it in the room. You could feel my happiness, too, but when Stephanie was feeling something it had a tendency to light up the room.

I turned to him again, and said simply "Thank you."

"De Nada."

 _The Present_

 _Ranger POV_

I didn't know what to do with Morelli in my dreams, holding conversations with me, but I figured it was worthwhile to listen to him. So I showed up on Monday at half past noon with white grape juice and Cherry Garcia, hope for my future in tact, and lunch I made myself because Stephanie was worth the effort.

She told me to come on in, which I really had to talk to her about, all things considered. It wasn't safe to leave the doors unlocked, and I knew she knew it.

I made my way into the kitchen where she was setting the little table. I put away the ice cream and juice, and took the warm lasagna out of the hot/cold carrying case I had.

"Did Ella make that?"

"Nope, I did. It's my Abuela's recipe."

Stephanie looked at me in what I assumed was awe, since she had never seen me cook, and couldn't cook herself. I served it onto the plates she held and we sat down to eat.

I didn't ask about how she was feeling, or what the families had said. I didn't bring up the cases or work. I kept the conversation trivial, weather, the news, the TV shows she still watched. It was nice to have a normal conversation with her. I debated telling her about Morelli appearing in my dreams, but ultimately decided it was probably better not to.

After all, he wasn't showing up in her dreams as far as I knew.

 _Stephanie's POV_

Something was weird about Ranger today. He'd never seemed so, well, off for lack of a better word. He was honestly acting a little shifty. He was holding a full conversation, hasn't brought up work, and he kept furrowing his brow, which isn't a Ranger thing. Finally I caved. I burst.

"What is wrong with you. You're acting really weird."

Ranger exhaled slowly, almost a sigh. "You want the good news or the bad news first?"

"Hit me with the good first."

"Your missing persons cases are related. I found evidence that links the same guy to the store in the days leading up to what I'm going to classify as an abduction. I found the same guy there several other times in between, in different cars. At least two other people are missing."

I knew it! My mind was racing with the possibilities. "Who's the guy?"

"You're not going to like this. It's Donnie Castnet."

The older brother of the lead suspects in Joe's murder! Oh my god! My brain was in overdrive trying to connect the dots. If these guys were responsible for killing Joe, it was probably my fault for looking into the cases. That meant it was my fault Joe died.

I was having a panic attack, and Ranger immediately sprung into action. He put his hand on the back of my neck, telling me to just breathe. Relax, picture the ocean. He asked me about my favorite memory of Point Pleasant.

I smiled remembering, "seventh birthday. That was the best. Morelli was there. He held my hand and tried really hard to make me laugh."

Most of my best memories had Morelli, and in most if them he was trying to make me laugh or make me mad.

That's how I knew I loved him as a kid.

That's why I loved him as an adult.

That's why I was going to solve this.

But first, I needed the ice cream Ranger somehow knew I needed.


	9. Chapter 9

_Disclaimer: no one belongs to me_

 _I'd posted an update earlier that was just a news update that I'd been a bit busy and hadn't gotten a chance to write. I'm going to replace it with this, so without further ado here's your real chapter 9 folks!_

Chapter Nine

That week was fairly busy for me. I had several client meetings for new potentials and I had several client meetings for cases I'd closed. Ranger brought me the information on the other two missing persons, and I started to build a timeline on a cork board I kept hanging in the closet in my office. If I opened the door to the closet and left it that way, I could see the information I'd hung up from my desk. I was pondering everything I'd hung up that we had found so far when Ranger knocked on my office door. He held up a bag from McDonald's, true confirmation I was in the twilight zone, and I motioned him in.

"I've been thinking," I began, "what happens to the Vic's cars? They leave the lot, but as far as I can tell, there's no record of a towing company going to get them. I can see a tow truck, but they're always careful to leave their plates dirty so you can't read them and their logo never shows up on the side of the door like it usually would."

"I noticed that too, and I ran all 3 Castnet brothers to see if one of them had a flatbed tow truck registered in their name. They didn't, and I haven't found a connection to any tow company in the area."

So that would be our first step, finding the tow truck driver. I started a search with parameters for Newark to Philadelphia, connections to CDL drivers or tow truck drivers, junkyards, and friends or relatives with tow trucks or flatbeds registered to them, and then filtered in the Castnet brothers and their known associates. While that was running I started another search, with all the suspected victims names, and set the parameters for any common denominator, whether it be the same car insurance or farting on the same street twenty years apart. Rangers search programs could find that level of information.

I ate my chicken nuggets while the programs ran, and continued to consider my cork board. We had a at time of abduction 55 year old affluent woman, a 25 year old male who was poor as can be, a 19 year old female who worked at a bar on the weekends and attended university online the rest of the week, and a 47 year old homeless man, unless you counted his Camry as a home. Jobs ranged from executive assistant for a CEO to unemployed, or undocumented employment.

The only thing I could find in common was the abduction date and location. They'd all been abducted on May 15th. at a small branch of a national grocery store chain. The first abduction was the young male, and he hadn't been reported missing until June 3rd. No one seemed to check on him, and his job seemed exceedingly unconcerned that he was gone. He'd done some painting for a small company that had a loosy goosy attendance policy. His landlord finally reported him missing when he was a week late on his rent.

Two years later the 47 year old male was abducted, followed by the waitress and finally the executive assistant. The family of the painter had contacted me and so had the executive assistants boss. I guess he was strongly struggling with the office work and the assistants the temp agency sent him were incompetent.

What would make them skip a year? This was troubling me. We had an abduction in 2011, 2013, 2014, and 2015. What kept them from taking someone in 2012? I pulled out a third laptop from my desk drawer and booted it up. Ranger raised a brow at me.

"Why did they skip a year? That bothers me. There's a pattern here, or so it seems, but they skipped a year. You've got young male, skip, older male, young female, older female, but the skip really bothers me."

"Maybe one of them was incarcerated?" He suggested, eating some of my fries.

I looked at him like he was from Mars. Ranger eating greasy salty French fries from McDonald's. That was new. It was strange. I didn't like it. I had enough change, he needed to stay the same Ranger. I told him this and he laughed. I backed away slowly, hitting my window.

"What the hell is wrong with you? What happened to Ranger? What planet are you from?"

He kept a small smile in place, "Babe."

"Don't you 'Babe' me. Stop eating my fries. I'm serious! What alien inhabited your body? I know the aliens that inhabited mine."

He laughed out loud again and put the remainder of the fries on my side of my desk.

I started the search for May 14-16, 2012, any and all incidents within a 2 mile radius of that grocery store. While I was doing that, the computer running the driver search dinged that it had some results for me. There were five names of associates to the Castnet brothers or one of their usual associates. There were three that looked promising to me based off of basic information, so I started running them through the databases for a more in depth background first, tabling the other two.

"Find anything?"

"Yeah, three of these five people look really promising. Ronan Piers has his own flatbed truck. He was incarcerated with Kyle's best buddy Lee for a few weeks before he was released. There's Chuck O'Riley who served in Vietnam with the Castnet's dad, Jerry. He has a junkyard and towing service, plus a few personal trucks. And there's Alan's ex wife, Alicia, who has a CDL and a personal flatbed truck registered under her name. No criminal history, no kids, no hard feelings with Alan that registered on the basic."

I felt that Lee and Alicia looked most promising do far, but I needed something to confirm that.

Rangers cell beeped with a message and he kissed me on the forehead before leaving.

"Call me when you find something, babe."

The searches were still running when I left a few hours later so I locked the laptops in my secure room at the end of the hall before leaving. I'd check on them tomorrow, even though it was Sunday. I wanted to find these people.

I let myself into my parents house at 7, an hour after dinner. I knew my mom would have leftovers and I knew she'd be excited to see me. I wanted to talk to her about shopping for maternity clothes and what to do with Joe's house. I'd never really thought of it as mine, even though I'd decorated it and my name was on the title.

"Stephanie! I wasn't expecting you!" She exclaimed, rushing about the kitchen to heat me up a plate.

I gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek before I sat at the table, waiting for my dinner. I was 35 and I'd never been allowed to serve myself in my mothers kitchen. I'd baked a cake here once, and she wouldn't let me do my own dishes. She barely let me bake the cake. Too many childhood disasters in the kitchen when she was trying to teach me.

I plowed through my plate while my mother watched me to make sure I had enough food. Had to grow those Morelli hellions right, and that required a good amount of food. Tonight she'd made roast chicken, mixed vegetables and mashed potatoes. There was also Fresh dinner rolls.

When my mom was stressed, she ironed and drank. When she was happy, she baked. She'd bake cakes, breads, hams, pastries, everything. I benefited from it, so I was glad I wasn't the source of her stress anymore. My grandma was another story. Grandma must have been good lately. The casket lids must have all been open.

"So I wanted to talk to you about some stuff, Mom."

She nodded, and I continued, "I need maternity clothes and I figured you might want to go shopping with me. And I need to figure out what to do about Joe's house. I don't know if I can keep living there. I can barely go into the kitchen."

My mom had gotten really excited about the idea of shopping but looked decidedly less so when the topic of the house came up. She suggested a list of options, and then a pro/con list of each option. She grabbed a legal pad and started writing as I listed options off: sell, rent out, leave vacant, live in.

The pros for sell were large sum of money into the coffers, but the cons were losing some of the Morelli heritage since Joe had inherited the house, and the whole murder thing usually made a sale difficult. Plus I wasn't sure Morelli would have wanted that.

The pros for rent were steady income, control over who became a resident, and having the option to move back in eventually if I was ever comfortable with it, or at the very least having a home to give the twins when they hit adulthood. The cons were again the murder and the potential for damage, plus the difficulties with being a landlord.

Leave vacant was nothing but cons. It would cost me money.

Living in it had the benefits of being close to memories and not needing to find another place to raise the twins but the downside was the memories.

By the end of the list, mom and I agreed it would probably be best to rent it out.

I stayed at my moms that night, and while I was laying in my bed waiting for sleep to find me, I sent a text to Ranger.

Me: **I think I'm going to rent out Joe's house.**

R **: Do you have a lawyer other than Kloughn to handle the lease?**

Me: **No, do I need one?**

R: **BABE!**

R: **you can borrow my lawyer. He owes me some favors. I'll set up a meeting for right after our weekly next week.**

Me: **okay, thanks. Sounds good.**

A few minutes later, my brain and my fingers got away from me and I sent him another text.

Me: **what are you wearing?**

R: **come find out ;)**

Oh boy.

What had I done.

I started to have a guilt attack and that's how I fell asleep; feeling guilty as hell and like I'd betrayed Joe.


	10. Chapter 10

_Disclaimer: everyone recognizable belongs to Janet_

 _a/n: if you got the update for chap 9 that said it was 71 words, I made a whoopsie- I updated with a news update, and when I finished real chap 9 I replaced the news update with it. So if you haven't read real chap 9 you should :)_

 _friday was really busy for me and I foresee today, Saturday, being the same but I will try to write and update. My kids all still have colds and my older almost 3 month old twin has two teeth cutting through. Weird, right?_

 _Thank you all for the positive reviews! I have good things in mind for the next few chapters!_

Chapter Ten

 _Joe's POV_

Aw shit. I was finally in Cupcake's dreams and it was because of Manoso. This must be Gods idea of punishing me for my years of raising hell. I had to play Cupid for my wife and her former lover, while she was pregnant with my kids. What the fuck is that? What kind of sick twisted version of heaven, the great beyond, is this? I thought I was supposed to enjoy heaven, suffer no pain. Clearly that hadn't happened. I knew I wasn't in hell, though, or at least I figured it because I doubted the devil had a sense of humor and I'd done plenty of great things the last several years. I rid the streets of criminals, right?

I walked up to where she was sitting on the swings. This was one of her memories, she'd been thinking about us. We were off again at this point. I could tell from the bandage on her leg. She'd gotten shot rounding up an FTA and I just couldn't handle it. We had a lot of moments like that together.

When I sat in the swing next to her, she looked at me, and tears started pouring.

"You're not supposed to be here," she said.

"Not in this memory, but in your dreams? It's the only place I belong now, Cupcake."

The tears still pouring, something that hurt my soul, which is I guess all I was now, she told me, "I did a bad thing. I flirted with Ranger. You've barely been gone two months. What's wrong with me?"

I wiped her tears away and grabbed her hand. "You're human. It's not betrayal and it's not Roth the guilt, okay? You are allowed to flirt and to feel and to move on. You need to, sometime, and why drag the pain out? The grief? You'll always miss me, but you don't need to be alone while you do it."

Christ I hated this. I didn't want her to be alone, but I didn't exactly want her with Manoso either. She was looking at me like she was reading my thoughts, and she knew I was struggling. She had that way about her. She could read your emotions, even without being able to read your face.

"How are my babies, Cupcake?" I tried to change the subject.

"Oh Joe. They're doing great. I wish you could really be here for it. I know you're watching over us, but I wish you could experience it with me, here. I'm thinking of renting out your house. I talked to my mom about it and Ranger offered me his lawyer, instead of using Kloughn."

Good. Personally I thought Kloughn should have his license to practice law revoked. There was no way I could feel comfortable with him being the one to handle any of Stephanie's legal dealings outside of a general knowledge base and even that was questionable. Ranger at least had lawyers who knew their shit.

"That's a good idea. I can't imagine what it's like being in there, now."

I couldn't. I knew I'd died in the kitchen, I knew I'd been stabbed but I didn't know by who or why I hadn't called for help. I was only allowed to know certain pieces of information and it was all very obscure.

We sat and swung for awhile, holding hands. The sun was setting and it was pretty chilly out, so there were no kids at the park. Occasionally a car would drive past, and Stephanie would glance at it.

"I'll always love you, Joe. Even if I were to move on, I'd still love you. What man could live with that?"

I sighed, because I knew exactly what man. "You and I both know Manaso has always loved you. No matter what he said when he found out we were engaged, he has always loved you and I think given half a chance he would want to be with you. He knows our history and he wouldn't expect you to stop loving my memory or to forget about me. He wouldn't want you to, for our kids sake."

She looked at me, assessing how serious I really was. The thing is, she was mine first. She'd always be mine, in some way, but she wouldn't ever be mine again fully. I was dead, after all. I only wanted her happy.

"It's about time for me to go, Cupcake. I love you, but do me a favor and give Manoso a call when you wake up."

I leaned in to kiss her, and right before I walked out of her dream, I turned back.

 _Stephanie's POV_

I woke up from the strangest dream. Joe was there. He was telling me to move on, at least I think that's what he was saying. I felt oddly better after the texts from last night. It was 3:45 am but I called Ranger anyway. It's what Joe told me to do, and it seemed like the least I could do since I doubted he'd be asking much more of me from the great beyond. Plus I knew Ranger would be up soon anyway.

"'Lo? You okay, Babe?"Ranger's voice sounded scratchy from sleep, and it was supremely sexy.

I smiled, even though I was still crying, "yeah, everything's okay. I had this dream…"

I could hear Ranger rustling around on his thousand thread count sheets. "Tell me about it, Babe."

So I did. From sitting on the swings by myself to the kiss goodbye to when Joe turned back around right before I woke up.

"He said, 'Cupcake! The twins? A boy and girl.' And then I woke up."

Ranger was quiet on the other end. For a second I thought he'd fallen asleep but then I heard him take a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Morelli has been in my dreams too. I got to see two of his memories. He told me what to look for with the cars of your missing persons and he told me to get you ice cream."

"Are you serious?!" I didn't figure Ranger one to believe in hauntings or anything he couldn't touch or see with his own eyes.

"Yes. It was a little bit weird at first but I got used to it."

There was something, an inflection, in his voice. "What? There's something you're not telling me."

"He told me one day you'll be my wife."

Oh. I hadn't expected that. Honestly I couldn't see myself willingly getting married a third time. It took Joe five years to get me down the aisle and he was a lot steadier and easier than Ranger. I knew I loved the Ranger I knew, and I was sure there was still something other than sexual chemistry there but I didn't think I could ever really give a relationship a try. I don't know if I could survive getting more attached and having him die too. It would be too much for me.

However, sex was something I could do. My hormones had been crazy lately, and my shower massager wasn't doing it for me anymore.

"I don't know about that, especially right now, but if the offer is still open to see what you're wearing, I'll make my way over right now."

 _Ranger POV_

I had not expected that. I told her to come on over, then called the control room and told them she was coming and to let her up to my apartment on seven. I got out of bed long enough to unlock the door and use the bathroom, before crawling back in to wait for her. I knew when she got here she'd have some reservations. She would have thought through the implications of doing this and she would have had some time to reflect on how her body had changed.

Personally I thought a pregnant woman was a sexy woman. There was something innately sensual in a body that could create life. I loved the hills and valleys of a woman, and I'd always been drawn to Stephanie's hills and valleys. Now she had more hills and I was digging that, too. I pretty much figured no matter what Stephanie would be sexy to me.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of my front door opening and then it clicking shut. I could hear her soft footfalls on my carpet and I got rock hard before she even made it to the door. What was it about this woman?

She was wearing plaid pajama bottoms and a blue tank top sans bra. There was hardly any light but I could tell her nipples were hard enough to cut glass from here and her breasts were at least a cup size bigger. There was a slight curve to her stomach and when my eyes passed over it, I got impossibly harder. It was painful, really. But she looked nervous, so I tried to ease her mind.

"Come here, Babe. We can just talk." I patted the bed next to me and pulled up the covers so she could slide in.

Before she got in the bed, she slipped those cotton pants off leaving a small scrap of lace between us. It wasn't a thong, but it showed more of her ass than it covered, and it made me even more uncomfortable to stare at it on her. I'd really like to pull it off with my teeth.

"I'd like that, too, Carlos," she murmured, sliding in next to me, laying on her side facing me.

Madre de dios, hearing her say my name filled my heart and my dick at the same time. I leaned into her, placing my hand on her hip, fingers stroking gently along the baby bump. I smiled at her, and she took me totally by surprise, leaning up to kiss me.

We just made out for a little while, perfectly content to have our lips, tongues and teeth duel in the age old dance of passion. I think she might have left a hickey or two on me, and I knew I had left one on her breast. We took each other slowly, me making good on my promise to remove the panties with my teeth, and her finding out I was wearing nothing under the sheets.

We came together for the second time just as the sun was coming up, and the play of the sunshine on her skin made my heart clench in love. I tucked her in beside me, and lightly rested my hands on her belly. I ignored the tears leaking out of her eyes, knowing this was never going to be just sex and knowing she had figured it out too. When her breathing evened outI knew she was sleeping, finally.

Today was going to be complicated, but I had no doubt it would be worth it.


	11. Chapter 11

_Disclaimer: anyone recognizable belongs to Janet_

Chapter Eleven

The next few weeks were incredibly busy. I went shopping with my mom for part one of my new wardrobe, and talked to Ranger's lawyer and a real estate agent about listing the house for rent. I went to Ma Morelli's for a few dinners with just her and Bella, who were oddly supportive of renting the house out. They were less pleased when I told them in case they heard anything from other sources that I was casually dating Ranger. Really it was just Ma Morelli. I tried to explain how Joe had visited me in my dream, and that he had actually encouraged me.

Grandma Bella stood up for me, saying that just like her Eye, my dream vision was a gift from God. I had to agree with her, because no other way I would have let myself off the hook on the guilt if not for that dream and it was one of the best things to happen lately. My needs were getting serviced regularly and if I couldn't have sex without my heart involved, well, I was coming to terms with it. I was lucky enough to love and be loved by two great men in one lifetime.

We had gotten some results on our searches that I had left running in the office, and Ranger had contract workers doing surveillance and chasing down other leads. Because I wasn't in any shape for field work right now, I just kept running searches. I requested all conversations with potential suspects and witnesses be recorded for my own investigative purposes. I could better understand what happened in a conversation if I could hear the changes in someone's voice. It would be better if we could use mini cameras, too, but we weren't trying to lose money solving this case.

We had found an anomaly in 2012. Somebody was abducted but they had been found strangled to death three months later. It had also been a young male. It didn't fit with the pattern we had now, but maybe that was it – maybe there was no pattern. I contemplated this while I packed up the home I'd shared with Joe.

I'd found a tenant, a middle aged man relocating temporarily due to an office move compounded by a split with his wife. He had two kids who would visit every weekend and on school holidays. I quoted him a reasonable price, according to the realtor and the lawyer, but I still felt I was asking a lot so I told him I'd leave the living room furniture and the kitchen table and he could keep it when he moved out. I gave him permission to paint but he had to paint everything back to white when he moved out.

I hadn't expected that I'd find a tenant so quickly so I still didn't have a place to live, but the realtor was taking me to a few places this afternoon. I'd asked my mother and Ranger to join me, for two completely different reasons. My mother would be able to assess decorating issues that would pose a problem for me plus things that wouldn't be child safe, like a gas stove with knobs on the front instead of near the wall or up on the back of the counter if it was a built in island stove. Ranger could help with every other security feature, because god knows that my daughter would probably be trying to sneak out, and a Morelli boy was not to be trusted.

When I got to the first house with Ranger two hours later, my mother was already there on the porch with the realtor. It was a wrap around porch and I loved the look of it, and I could see myself sitting there rocking on a day when it wasn't too hot. It was outside of the Burg, about thirty minutes away, so it was on the far end of where I wanted to live but I really loved the look already.

"This house was built in 2005, so it's just over ten years old. The original owner passed away before completing the payments on the loan for the construction. The family is willing to sell it well below market value to get it, and the payments to the construction company, off their hands. The list price is $130,000 even and the remainder on the balance due to the company is $107,000. You would own about four acres of land with that cost as well. It's got five bedrooms, three bathrooms upstairs, and a half bath on the main level."

I smiled at Ranger. So far this sounded exceptional to me. She had met all my requirements for space and price. We walked through the foyer where there was a single staircase to the right, and on the left was a nice room with white built in shelves along the wall facing the double doors and a window seat overlooking the porch. There was a lot of natural light. There's a small hallway that opens immediately into the kitchen from the foyer, and the concept of the rest of the main floor was extremely open. There was a small breakfast bar overlooking the living room, and a curved alcove off to the left of the kitchen where you could place a small table and some chairs. Right off the living room was another staircase and a set of double doors that opened to the dining room and another small room where there was a half bathroom attached. There was dark hardwood floors throughout the entire main level, and the kitchen was done in a pale gray granite. The cabinets were all white, as were all of the walls in the entire main level. There was a fireplace in the living room, and a doggy door on the door leading out of the kitchen to the backyard. It was spectacular. It was everything I wanted.

Everything was updated in the kitchen, and the appliances were stainless steel. The stove was a six burner gas island top. I loved it. There was even a wine refrigerator built into the island, but you wouldn't know unless you lifted up the cabinet door that was outside of it to conceal it.

"Mom?" I asked her, curious as to her opinion. I had noted that the knobs for the stove were up and away from little hands, but I wasn't sure if there was anything else.

"Oh Stephanie, it's perfect! I want to come bake here, can I come bake here when you buy it?"

I laughed, as did the realtor. Ranger was assessing everything.

"My only concern is the amount of Windows. I'd have to replace them with bulletproof glass to feel comfortable. I wouldn't want them to be able to open, but I think we could come to a compromise on that."

I nodded. I knew he'd hate the windows. We took the staircase from the living room to the upstairs. The four smaller bedrooms were attached to each other by a bathroom. Two rooms on one side, two on the other. They looked like they were all exactly the same size and they had the same size closets. I asked the realtor about that, and she confirmed that the measurements were equal to each other, but that everything was just mirrored and flipped.

The master bedroom was what really sold me though. I didn't care about the safety concerns anymore, we could figure it out. Because there, in front of the fireplace in the master bedroom, was Bob. The realtor started apologizing profusely, and I just shushed her with a wave of my hand and started to pet Bob dog, who had come slinking over to me and leaned against me. He was thinner, but he was still the big pile of orange floof and he whimpered as I scratched his ears. The entire upstairs was carpeted, and where he had been laying was a big mess of orange fur, but he was Bob and he was alive, and this was my house.

"He must have come through the dog door, Babe," Ranger whispered, not wanting to spook poor Bob who had probably been through a lot in the three years since I'd seen him.

"I can't believe it's him, but look, here's the scar from the bullet that skinned him when he shot himself trying to eat Joe's gun and here's where his skin got rubbed raw from his collar when we chained him in Joe's yard when he wouldn't stop trying to eat Grandma Bella and it scarred."

I heard my mother explaining to the realtor that my dog had been lost for over three years and we didn't think he was still alive. I continued to look around in the master bedroom and bathroom with Bob following me, and went downstairs to tell the realtor I'd take it. I asked her to call the family for an immediate offer. I'd give them $120,000 – $10,000 under listing price – but I could make a $30,000 down payment immediately if the the rest of the process could be fast tracked.

I was relieved when they accepted and I knew I'd be moving in before the next weekend. Ranger arranged to have his window guy come out and change out the glass, and when I expressed concern over it he told me it was his money, he could spend it however he wanted and he wanted to spend it making sure my kids were safe.

I took Bob back to Morelli's with me that night after stopping at an emergency vet. Poor Bob was dehydrated and malnourished but he would be okay with lots of love, food, and water. When Bob walked in he sniffed everything, bounding around the house, and when he finished his search he came to me whining softly.

"I know, Buddy, no Daddy."

Bob and I slept on the couch together unable to sleep in the bed we had shared with Joe, his head just above the curve of my stomach. I didn't dream of Joe that night but I could feel his presence around me and it brought all four of us comfort.

 _Rangers POV_

I was glad Stephanie and Bob had found each other. We'd been keeping the relationship fairly quiet so I'd been trying not to spend the night at her place. I wanted to, don't doubt that, but I wouldn't subject Stephanie to more gossip than she'd been privy to already and I absolutely refused to contribute now when I knew that news of our relationship broke publicly. Of all people, Grandma Bella had been on her side but Angie Morelli was not pleased she was seeing me and I felt like that was an understatement.

Stephanie had an ultrasound tomorrow and I couldn't wait to see more pictures of the babies. They weren't mine but they were a part of her and I loved every part of her.

Stephanie had no idea about the ultrasound. It was a gift from me. I'd booked her for a half hour long 3D/4D ultrasound and I'd sent an invitation to Angie & Bella Morelli and one to Stephanie's mom and Grandma Mazur. I'd arranged to have lunch with Stephanie tomorrow and I was just going to drop her off.

I knew Helen was excited and I was hoping Angie would calm down getting to see live her next grandkids. I was also really hoping they were able to make out decent facial images, so they could see if there was a probability either baby would look like Morelli. I figured that would go a good ways to appeasing his mom. The technician I talked to when I made the appointment said they usually could grab fairly good pictures at the 16 week mark and Stephanie was at 17, but she may go back if they couldn't get a good one.

I smiled, knowing I'd send her back anyway. But next time, I'd stay. I intended for these babies to be mine, even if I had to stay in the periphery. Thanks to Morelli's visit to my dreams, though, I knew I'd likely get to play a much larger part in all four of their lives.

I really didn't know how I'd handle that mutt, but for Steph? Anything. I'd do anything.


	12. Chapter 12

_Disclaime: Anyone recognizable belongs to JE_

 _A/N: I've gotten several comments about the price of the house, and when my husband and I were house hunting one of the areas we checked out was Cherry Hill, NJ. It's a bit south of Trenton, but there were several great homes for under 150k. The house I described would be worth closer to 200k but because of the need for it to sell, I priced it at what the late owner would still owe on the build loan plus enough extra for the late owners family to take care of debt. It seemed fair._

 _I also wanted to touch base on the 3D/4D ultrasounds- I've had several done, and I absolutely loved them. I highly recommend it to anyone who is having a baby or knows someone who is. We got one done with our twins around 16 weeks, a full month before the doctor would do an ultrasound to even look at gender even though he was doing ultrasounds fairly frequently for us because of how high risk my pregnancies are. We were able to better prepare for our boys, which was good because they decided to show up much earlier than we had planned._

 _Also, a special thanks to everyone who has reviewed. I'd really like to acknowledge Angela Mueller and melyons here for their consistent reviewing- I've seen their names show up pretty frequently and in Angela's case I got a review that pushed me to keep going even though I felt like quitting._

Chapter Twelve

When Ranger pulled up in front of a small office building instead of a restaurant for lunch, I was a bit confused. We were supposed to be going to lunch together and I was pretty hungry so I didn't know why he was holding me off. He handed me a sandwich in Tupperware and told me to go to the second floor and someone would be waiting for me.

I huffed but went inside and took the elevator to the second floor. When the elevator doors opened, they revealed both of my moms and grandmas. Grandma Mazur and Grandma Bella weren't even arguing.

"What's going on?"

"Just come with us Stephanie!" My mother sang out to me, while Ma Morelli took my arm.

They pulled me to an open door with a tasteful painted sign that read Baby Bump Studios & Imagery. When we walked in, I immediately felt comfortable. There was soft music playing in the background, a big overstuffed sofa in the waiting room, and a mini fridge with bottles of water inviting you to take one. They also had a tastefully put together black folio menu of services they offered including partnerships with other companies that offered spa services, exclusively prenatal wardrobes, and handmade baby products including cribs, clothes, and baby gifts for grandmothers like handprints on s plate.

A receptionist came up to greet us, a sweet plump older woman. She handed me a clipboard with information to fill out and told us to have a seat it would just be a few moments.

My mom filled out the paperwork and I ate my sandwiches. Soon enough we were all getting called back to a relaxing room with two couches set up for viewing and a large flatscreen on one wall.

"Do you know what you're having, Mrs. Morelli?" Sunny, the ultrasound tech, asked me.

"Not for sure. My late husband visited me in a dream and said a girl and a boy, but I want to get that confirmed and make sure it's not just griefs wishes."

The tech nodded sympathetically and started probing my belly with her wand. She moved slowly, explaining everything she was looking at before she put the screen into the 3D view.

"Baby A is a girl, you can see here."

She showed us genitals, and her little feet and hands. She made sure go get several pictures of her face, clear on. It was magical. I had happy tears and I could hear both Ma Morelli and my mom crying next to me. Grandma Bella and Grandma Mazur were taking turns pointing out who's what she had. She appeared to have my nose, and my bow shaped lips. Her chin was mine, too. I thought she might look like me.

"Baby B is definitely not a girl!"

We all laughed as Sunny showed us the little guy. He looked just like Joe already. This moved even Grandma Bella to tears. Sunny got images of them right next to each other, head down, and of them separately. She printed out several copies, even giving us a DVD of the ultrasound and a CD of all the images for each of us. I couldn't believe Ranger had paid for all of that!

When I was done, I desperately needed the restroom, and Sunny directed me there. As soon as I stepped in my spidey senses went crazy, followed by me being slammed into the wall, back first. Thank god it wasn't my belly is all I could think right then, and then came the knife.

He was tall, maybe about six foot, and was wearing a ski mask. I could see nothing, not even his eyes, for he had sunglasses on. He held me by the throat, with the knife pressing against my bump.

"You need to back out of those searches, little bitch. If you don't stop trying to find us, we have proven we can find you."

He spoke low and menacingly, and his voice was completely unfamiliar.

"W-w-w-what searches?" I stuttered, having a pretty good idea.

"You know what searches, cunt. If you don't stop, just think what will happen to your dead cops children… you saw what we did to him. Does it haunt you? Is it all you can see when you close your eyes?"

I heard the familiar bzzzzt right as my world went dark.

 _Ranger POV_

I knew something was wrong the second I pulled up to the ultrasound place. There was an ambulance and Morelli's mom was wringing her hands while Bella yelled in crazy Italian they had better do their damn job.

"E meglio prendere cura di mia nipote. Io metterò l'occhio su di voi. E assicurarsi che i miei bambini sono al sicuro!"

Per my rough understanding of Italian, she had said "you better take good care of my granddaughter. I will put the eye on you. You make sure my babies are safe!"

Fuck. I jumped out of the SUV, leaving it illegally parked and ran to the ambulance. I used my commanding tone and demanded to know what had happened. They told me they were taking her to St. Francis and someone there would fill me in, but they had to go. I ran back to my SUV and I followed them. I wasn't leaving her to chance. I parked illegally at the hospital, too, hanging my official FBI parking badge over the rear view and I went seeking answers.

Three agonizing hours later, they finally let me see Stephanie. Both her and the babies were okay, just shaken up. They'd wanted to make sure that the volts from the stun gun didn't cause labor so they were keeping her overnight. Every once in awhile she'd have a contraction, but nothing out of the ordinary for twins.

After what felt like forever, but was really only a few hours, Stephanie's eyes opened.

"Babe!"

She looked around in a panic and I rushed to assure her she was fine, the babies were fine. When she told me what happened in the bathroom, after much freaking out, I was livid. My blank face had slammed down and I knew it. Stephanie stroked the side of my face, before smiling.

"I know something that will cheer you up! Where's my purse? Do you have your laptop?"

I handed both to her and watched as she inserted a disc into the drive. She turned the screen to show me the images and right there, I could see, was a mini Stephanie and a mini Morelli. One of each gender, and one that would look like his dad and one that would look like her mom. They were beautiful. I flashed back to that memory of Morelli's on the beach and I could see the same thing eight years from now, but with us as the adults.

"What are you thinking of naming them, babe?"

"Joe and I talked about that. He wanted Sophie Isabella and Luca Dominic… but in light of everything that is not the same now, I think I'm going to name her Sophia Josephine. I'll keep Luca Dominic…"

I smiled, "Those are beautiful names. I can't wait until it's time to meet them."

I placed my hands on her bump and felt the peace settle over us. These weren't my babies, not technically, but there's no law that said I couldn't love them as if they were.

"Carlos?"

"Yeah, babe?"

"Can you check on Bob and grab my cookie jar and the duffle bag I have packed? I want to move in with you until it's time to move into my house, if that's okay. And I'd really like it if you could stay with me there for awhile… I don't feel safe."

My heart broke a little. Stephanie almost never asked for protection. She waited until the last possible second. I acquiesced easily and promised to take the dog back to Rangeman with me for the time being. I had her call her mom to see who wanted to visit while I went to take care of the details. I also put a guard up at her door. The labor and delivery wing was one of the most secure but I trusted my men not to be bought.

You don't mess with the woman I love, and for damn sure you don't mess with her kids.

These Castnet fuckers had no idea what was coming to them.

Me.

 _A/N : some facts about twins that really interested me- on average twins arrive by 36 weeks. Most twin pregnancies are considered full term by 38 weeks. I made it to 34-35 (there's some discrepancy in my dating). You're t higher risk of gestational diabetes and preeclampsia, and in my case I suffered 8 straight weeks of contractions 3-5 minutes apart. So bad I could barely walk. I won't be doing that to Stephanie though. Also, I_ know _several women who have had what is referred to as a double whammy. It's half vaginal birth (twin A) and half csection (twin B). Sometimes they even schedule it that way. I wanted to make this easy on Steph so I also positioned both twins head down. Mine were breech and transverse (feet down and sideways). They stayed that way from the very beginning. I also wanted to address the name change from the polls- I liked Luca & Dominic evenly and they had the same number of votes so I just combined. _

_thank you all for your patience on this update. I had a trying few days followed by my husbands birthday and I just needed to read a little and regroup. My brain atrophies if I don't read a little bit. :)_


	13. Chapter 13

_A/N- basically fluff and I'm not entirely convinced this chapter isn't garbage. The next will be longer and hopefully more productive with the Castnet brothers_

Chapter Thirteen

 _Ranger POV_

I was determined to find whoever had leaked the information about Stephanie's ultrasound. I voraciously questioned all the staff that worked in the office, and had Hector run security programs on their computers to see if there had been a hack. I also had Cal go to the Morelli house and the Plum house to check for bugs and traces of phone tapping. The tech, Sunny, finally caved. She was the one who had given out the information carelessly.

One of the Castnet brothers, as of yet it was undetermined which, had called stating he was Stephanie's brother in law and has been invited but forgot what time it was! So I knew who gave the information but I still wasn't sure how they had known that she had the ultrasound in the first place.

That is, until Cal came back. Angie Morelli had called several people in the Burg to tell them about the Present I was giving Stephanie and to complain that I shouldn't be taking liberties. One of the Castnet brothers had tapped her phone. Since no one was mentioning this to Stephanie, and since I really couldn't give a shit less what the old bat thought, I opted not to mention that specific part when I told her how they'd found her. I didn't want to ruin what I had planned.

Stephanie's birthday was in two days, and even though the ultrasound was a way to spoil her I also got her other gifts. I put a rush order on certain things because I couldn't order them until the ultrasound, and I sent out the invitation to specific people via word of mouth.

When Stephanie's birthday actually rolled around, she was going nuts. She'd been cooped up in Rangeman since her release from the hospital, and even though she was moving into the new house in another few days, she felt she had nothing to do. Her only real entertainment was Bob. It was partially true, I wasn't allowing her to do much. I had employees to help with stuff like that. Needless to say, she was thrilled when I told her we were going out that night.

She was wearing a light blue dress that accentuated her curves, and clung to her bump. It stopped two inches above her knees and I almost had a heart attack when I saw her. We hadn't made love in close to a week, and I was seriously feeling the lack lately. We were waiting on doctors clearance, making sure her stress level and everything was okay.

I drove us to Rossini's where I had booked the back room. I'd invited some of her closest Rangeman friends, and I'd invited her family and Joe's. I'd kept it fairly small, though. Angie and Bella Morelli, Helen and Frank, Grandma Mazur, Connie and Lula, plus Tank, Hal, Cal, Hector and Ella. I had also invited my parents, and only my parents. I had a large family, and I did not want to overwhelm her.

"Carlos? What's all this?"

"Happy birthday, babe."

 _Joe POV_

Damn it. Yet another freaking memory turned into someone else's dream. Couldn't even be Stephanie's. It had to be my mothers. I sighed as I sat next to her on our living room couch while my dad whaled away on my brother Tony. I wasn't supposed to be there for this but I had crept down the stairs and hid. My mom was either forced to watch or to participate. Tony had a split lip at this point. I think he'd gotten a bad grade, nothing major. He was fifteen and I was six.

"Hey Ma."

She shrieked, my completely unflappable mother. She actually shrieked. Then she started crossing herself.

"Calm down. You're just in a dream. This is one of my memories."

She looked at me completely aghast. She hated that we'd been abused. She'd hated the cheating. But she considered it perfectly okay to stay and take it, which I could never even begin to comprehend. If I'd acted that way to Stephanie, she'd have booted my balls into my threat. She was feisty. She had bigger balls than I did, and I loved it. No matter how much I bitched about her job.

"Ma, I love you. You knew I loved you before I passed, yeah?"

She just nodded her head, still mumbling prayers.

"I'm going to tell you something hard, and you're going to have to listen, okay?"

She just kept nodding. She was gonna have to work on that.

"I give my blessing to Manoso and Stephanie. However far they want to take their relationship, I'm okay with it. I need you to be, too. He will be good to her and for her, not to mention Sophia and Luca. I know you were at her birthday party today, and I hope you can be more civil than you were."

Her lips pursed. I could feel her emotions, see what she was thinking. She wasn't happy. She was having trouble with the apparent ease Steph had with moving on. I wrapped my arm around her shoulder as we sat on that couch watching Dad berate Tony all those years ago. I let her work it out for herself.

"I know I need to apologize to Stephanie and the Manoso family. I was more rude than I care to admit."

"You were. They'll forgive you. But Stephanie is having a hard time right now, and you need to be extremely mindful of that. Don't mention anything about her whereabouts to anyone. Don't talk about her weaknesses. Someone is after her. The same person who killed me."

My mother acknowledged this with a tilt of her head and I went into her memories of the birthday party. Manoso had done a damn good job. Everything was tasteful and elegant and exactly how I wished I'd been able to spoil Stephanie. My mother had brought her some of my toys from when I was a kid and a christening gown that had been passed down for generations. Stephanie already had the one I had worn as a kid.

Everything was going well until Stephanie had introduced Ma to Marie and Gerald Manoso. My mother had berated her for letting her newest lovers parents come to a family celebration and then called both Manoso and his mother filthy names I never thought I'd hear her say. She told Stephanie she was a disgrace to the Morelli name and then she'd stormed out.

I supplemented the rest of the evening in her dream, because I had been there watching my wife. Stephanie crying, and Marie calming her down. Grandma Bella muttering in Italian about Ma's behavior. The gifts everyone else gave Stephanie. Who knew Tank could hand carve cradles?

The look of love on Manoso's face every time he looked her way.

I think ma finally understood. And I was happy to realize it.

Now if only next time I get to haunt someone it can be my Stephanie again.


	14. Chapter 14

_Disclaimer: not mine_

 _a/n: I got the info on hourly rate for PI's online, and charged a higher rate for Stephanie's services. I calculated cost as $75/hr for 20hr/wk for a total of 20 weeks. It seems a little ridiculous even to me but hey._

Chapter Fourteen

 _Stephanie POV_

I was finally back in my office, the week before Halloween. Between almost having my children carved out of my body and the move, I'd needed the break. Ranger had finally narrowed down who the tow truck driver was, but we hadn't had any luck picking her up. We had, however, been notified that the executive assistants body had been found. She was strangled, just like our young male anomaly. I couldn't wait until we found Alicia Castnet, Alan's ex wife, to interview her.

Clarice Evans, the executive assistant, had been tortured. She'd been held in captivity, chained up. She had at least four broken fingers, a broken rib, and she had been sexually assaulted. Okay, no, she'd been raped. Let's call a spade a spade. Ranger had asked that I upgrade all security in my office, at his cost, and I didn't argue. I even brought Bob with me to the office. He was no longer eating everything in sight, which was great. I just wish he hadn't had to end up on the streets for that to happen.

I was reviewing Clarice Evans file when her boss came in for our resolution meeting.

"Hello, Mr. Peterson. I'm very sorry for your loss," I said, standing up to shake his hand. He eyed

Bob quizzically but murmured his thanks.

"We can hold our meeting here in my office, or I can take you to the client meeting room, it's completely up to you," I told him.

"Here's fine, Mrs. Morelli."

"Stephanie is fine, sir. Here, sit down. Do you want coffee, water?"

He just shook his head. I sat down across from him and handed him copies of our file.

"Let me again say I am very sorry for your loss. Here's everything we found on Ms. Evans' case. Unfortunately we have not had luck providing all the evidence to the relevant police departments as of yet. There have been five consecutive years that individuals have gone missing from that grocery store. They disappear the same day each year and we have narrowed the suspects down to these three brothers. For everyone's protection, including yours, I'm not giving you their names or ages, just their basic criminal background. We found a link to a tow truck driver that makes cars disappear, unfortunately we have not located this individual yet. Two of their victims have ended up deceased, a young male in 2012 and now Ms. Evans. We're not sure what these people are doing with the victims but I'm hopeful that the other victims are still with us."

I took a breath, watching his face. "With all of that said, this is personal for me. Neither I, nor my team at Rangeman, is going to give up until these guys are behind bars or in the ground. They killed my husband and two weeks ago they threatened my children. In your summary of the file, I have only included information pertinent to you. I also included a list of reputable people who I think would make a good executive assistant for you and I vouch for each of them personally. I put your bill on the back, and because this situation is not fully resolved nor did we find Ms. Evans with the outcome we had all hoped, I gave you a discount on the rate."

Mr. Peterson started shaking his head. "No. No, I refuse to take a discount. You put in your time, and your effort over these last months. I know it hasn't been easy. I read up on you, Mrs. Morelli. I read up on you, and I read up on your husband. If you insist on giving me the discounted rate I will find another way to get the money to you, because you deserve it."

I smiled. Anytime I gave a discount, this happened. I opened up my desk drawer, and I pulled out a slip of paper. I slid it across the desk to him.

"What's this?" He was obviously puzzled, reading it.

"These are charities that are near and dear to both my heart and my late husbands. If you insist on paying the full rate, the 20% I discounted for you can go to one of them, or be split among them."

There were several charities on there, including the Widows Fund, a charity that helped out widows and widowers of servicemen and servicewomen- regardless if they were firefighters, cops, or military. That was my personal preference because I'd seem how my sister struggled when her husband Steve left her and I knew if you didn't have a good foundation it was a lot harder after a spousal death than a spouse leaving. My second choices were always St. Jude's and the Ronald McDonald Foundation.

When Mr. Peterson left, I had two fat checks in my safe- one for me and one for the Widows Fund. I finished my day easily enough and headed-to my new home. Ranger had been staying with me at my request since I moved in. Cohabitation with him was pretty easy. Even though he had had a housekeeper for a good ten years, he was tidy and efficient. He could cook well enough, which was an area I struggled with, and if I did the laundry he folded it and put it away. He was very easy to live with, and I didn't even find myself waiting for the other shoe to drop with him.

When I got in, Ranger had what smelled like flounder cooking on the stove. He'd set the table, and lit candles. I smiled at the sight of him, black slacks and black dress shirt open in front of my stove. He had a wine glass of sparkling cider in his hand, and he poured me one when I walked in. I sat down at the breakfast bar and sipped it slowly, eyeing him up and down with one hand on my belly. Both babies were moving frequently now, and I swear they moved more the more I got near Ranger.

"How was your day, Babe?"

"Widows Fund is six grand richer, thanks to Mr. Peterson. Rangeman made a bit over seven grand from him today."

He smiled at me, although I knew he didn't care about the money.

"And how are Sophia and Luca?" He inquired as he came over and rested his hand atop mine.

I leaned back against his chest while they kicked away at him.

He spent a lot of time with his hands or his head on my belly, just talking to them. He told them stories about Joe and how great he was as a cop. He told them all about my misadventures as a bounty hunter. I regretted on his behalf he hadn't been there during this time of Julie's life because I felt he would be an incredible dad. Just as incredible as Joe.

Ranger had made flounder with a light lemon sauce, mashed cauliflower that I couldn't tell wasn't potatoes, and zucchini chips. It was delicious, and I told him so.

"Like you eating healthy, babe. Makes for stronger babies, and a longer life for you."

Right after dinner his phone rang.

"Yo."

"When?"

I watched his face go from happy to perplexed to angry to blank in less than thirty seconds.

"Got it. I'll be right there. I'll bring her and the dog."

Ranger hung up and sighed.

"We found Alicia Castnet. She's been dead awhile. We need to head to Rangeman. You still got stuff for you and Bob there?"

I nodded and quickly wrapped up the leftover food, while Ranger changed and started locking up the house. We met at his Porsche, Bob trotting beside me. He was growling and digging in his heels by my SUV, barking at it finally. I backed away instinctively, grabbing Rangers hand, I pulled him away with me. We'd take a car from the garage.

Just as we stepped inside, my SUV went up in flames, and I got a text from an unknown number.

BOOM!


	15. Chapter 15

_disclaimer: not mine_

 _A/N- I'm doing a little tiny cross over here. Don't kill me for the inaccuracies in the background of the crossover character. I made her fit my story._

Chapter Fifteen

 _Ranger POV_

I knew it would happen eventually. It had been at least a solid year since one of her cars blew up. I doubted I'd ever been so thankful that stupid mutt, and I doubted I ever would be again. I really disliked that idiot dog, but there was no doubt that he had saved our lives. My Porsche was also engulfed in flames, and damn I had JUST filled the tank.

Speaking of Tank, I placed the call to him that I was going to be delayed and that we had two blown cars that would need to be handled. Alicia Castnet wasn't going anywhere, it looked like she had been dead a long, long time. I had my arm around Stephanie, one hand resting on the dogs head, when the local police showed up. I flashed them my government badge, which didn't denote exactly which agency I worked for, and I told them exactly what happened. One of the cops pulled Stephanie aside to do the same.

"She's been known to have cars go boom. Her late husband was a Trenton homicide detective. You might call them, they know the drill. We're on a case right now that ties into her husbands homicide and several missing persons and we're getting a little too close to the perps for comfort. This has been the second threat to her this month."

The cop, an older grizzled looking man, probably in his late fifties and nearing retirement, took all the info down in his notepad and then raised his bushy brows and looked me dead in the eye. "Don't you think this is dangerous work for your… friend…Mr. Manoso?"

I wanted to pop him in the face. I hated his tone. "Stephanie is exceptionally gifted at what she does. Due to her pregnancy she is only working within the office on research. My team, a completely separate company from the one that SHE started and SHE got off the ground, is doing all fieldwork per a partnering agreement we signed. It's dangerous work for anybody. Sh can handle herself."

The cop, an Officer Lawrence, raised his hand, "I apologize if I was out of line."

I nodded once, sharply, before seeking Stephanie out. We were going to figure this out.

It was several hours later before we finally got to Rangeman. We had checked over every inch of the cars in the garage, and I had requested all information and evidence be sent to Rangeman for analysis. We had a government level lab in the basement no one knew about, and I wanted my team to figure out the type of incendiary used. I didn't trust those cops not to fuck up.

Stephanie was dead tired, and I herded her up to my apartment to sleep as soon as we got there. I still had to review the information on Alicia Castnet, and I had to talk to my contacts within the government. I had what felt like eight thousand things to do, and all I wanted was to crawl into bed with the woman I loved.

When I tucked her in, I kissed her on the forehead, and then I kissed each side of her belly, whispering, "I love you."

Stephanie was already half asleep and she murmured back, "Love you, too, Carlos."

My heart clenched in my chest. Those words from her, with my name, even halfway into sleep made me want to melt into a puddle beside her. Bad ass or not, I was allowed to have emotions strongly like that.

When I finally got to the control room, my utility belt strapped on, my team has everything prepared. I waited for them to load everything up onto the screen on the wall and I nodded to Tank to go down the list of information.

Alicia Castnet had been found as a Jane Doe a month ago. She had been strangled, buried in a very deep unmarked grave in a cemetery in Trenton, and it looked like that had all happened about five years ago according to the Trenton ME. No one had noticed she was missing because she was unemployed and her ex, Alan, still had his name on everything. He had control over her trucks, her home, and her bank accounts. When we dug deep into those, we found regular deposits and withdrawals from a company that didn't actually exist.

We spent the entire night combing through all the information we had on Alicia, Alan, the other two brothers, and this mysterious company- a plastics factory. There was a building we would have to look at, and there were actual employees listed and receiving money. But this company wasn't officially recognized anywhere, not even within the IRS. That's a big no no.

By the time morning rolled around, we had gotten some information on the incendiary device. I made my way down to the basement to hear it directly from my source, Abby Scuito, who I borrowed on occasion from NCIS. She was pressuring me to introduce Steph to her, but I didn't want Steph to feel overwhelmed by Abby's weirdness.

Who was I kidding, Stephanie didn't do overwhelmed. I didn't want Abby corrupting Stephanie. And god knows, as one of my former foster sisters, that would happen. I'd known Abby damn near thirty years and she was sweet and strange and intimidating to those who didn't know her.

"What do you got for me, Abs?" I asked, walking into her lab.

"Jesus Ranger, you look exhausted! If I tell you now, you have to promise to take a nap." I inclined my head in assent. "Goody! Okay, so it was a bomb. It looks like it was attached to the engine block and it was specifically engineered to only go off when the engine was off and the car reached a certain internal temperature. It wouldn't have gone off while she was driving. All materials are unfortunately way too common to trace, unless they bought the supplies in bulk which I am tracing. I also finger printed everything and I got results back almost immediately for Kyle Castnet."

"Thanks, Abs!"

"Mom wants you to bring Stephanie for dinner soon, bro. I'd like to meet her, too. So I told her we'd be there on Halloween. Gives a good distraction."

I mentally sighed and nodded again. I was going to be forced into it.

I called the control room on my way up to seven and gave them the info Abby had given me. I told Tank to find that idiot and lock him in a holding cell until I'd gotten some damn rest.

When I got upstairs, Stephanie was still in bed. I took my clothes off, crawled in next to her, laid my head on her pillow and my hand on Sophia and Luca and I went right to sleep.

 _Stephanie POV_

I woke up a short while after Carlos came back upstairs. I had to pee, but I didn't want to disturb his sleep. I waited a few minutes, until I was sure he was gone, and crept from the bed. I took care of my business, called down to Ella to tell her to hold breakfast until lunch and to make sure Bob was being cared for and I crawled back into bed. I knew he had found information out, or he would have come to bed sooner.

I laid my head next to his, and I put his hand back on the my bump, happy as can be under the circumstances. I'd told him I loved him last night, and while I felt like it was still a little bit like smacking Joe's memory in the face, I also knew he had given me his approval and permission. I'd always loved both of them, and now I made sure that Ranger knew it. I didn't want to waste more time. I didn't want to wake up one day and him not be by my side because he had died and I hadn't taken advantage of the time I had with him when I could.

Joe had made me realize you never know how much time you have. You never know how short the time you'll have to love somebody really is. I never wanted to miss out again.

So I'd take these moments, and I would love Ranger while I could. Hopefully, if he wanted me, it would be for the rest of our lives.


	16. Chapter 16

_Disclaimer: everyone belongs to JE_

 _A/N: sorry for the delay in posting. I hope this chapter is up to snuff, I developed a migraine halfway through and took heavy duty pain killers. I'm posting it anyway because the idea is sound. Please PM and let me know if there are any major mistakes and review and tell me what you think._

Chapter Sixteen

Ranger decided that we would go to his parents for Halloween. Everyone was going to be there, including his foster siblings, and I was anxious about meeting more people. I didn't need to be though. The second we arrived I was rushed off by Grandma Rosa and introduced to his two foster sisters, Abby Scuito and Morgan Fredericks. They were both incredibly kind although at first glance Abby was a strange duck. She was a forensic scientist and analyst who worked both with Rangeman and NCIS.

Morgan was a schoolteacher who taught teenagers with criminal records. Sometimes they weren't bad kids, they'd just made mistakes and other times they were a serious threat. She was demure and sweet and you wouldn't have thought that she could handle a job like that. I was in the kitchen talking to her when the first shot rang out.

I immediately pulled my gun from my hip and ushered Grandma Rosa and Morgan to the pantry. I asked Marie, who had grabbed a cast iron skillet, if there were any weapons in the house and if she knew the code to the gun safe she indicated was inside a cabinet. She whispered it to me and I pulled out two more Glocks and a Beretta. I handed a Glock to Abby, who tried to protest.

"Take it. Go hide in the pantry. Defend yourself if necessary. Defend your grandma."

I pulled extra ammo out and put it in my pockets. I urged Marie into a corner, and slithered off to find somewhere I could see what was going on. It had gotten seriously quiet in the living room.

"Our names aren't important, and most of you are insignificant to us. Give us the Morelli bitch, and we walk right out, no damage done." I heard a voice call out.

I peeked around the corner and saw three guys, the right size for the Castnet brothers, holding Marcella, Rangers four year old niece, at gun point. Rangers brother, Marco, was bleeding from a bullet wound to the shoulder on the floor. He looked ready to kill. I counted six more kids in there, and all four of Rangers biological sisters and their husbands, plus Gerald and Ranger with their hands up. The only people missing were the rest of the kids and Marco's wife, who god willing wouldn't come back from trick or treating for a long time.

I snuck down the hall and pressed the panic button that would alert the police in Newark and Rangeman that there was a situation, and then I flicked the switch that turned on the interior cameras I had helped Ranger set up. They were completely hidden, so they wouldn't trigger an alarm.

I snuck back down the hall, hiding my guns as I went. All except the beretta which I could hopefully use to take down whoever was holding Marcella. Barring that I could drop it somewhere Ranger would be able to get to it. He wasn't armed for once, because of the trick or treaters and all of his nieces and nephews. I received a text from Abby that her NCIS team was coordinating with the FBI and should be here momentarily. I deleted the message, tucked my phone back away, and seeing I had no way to shoot the fuckhead holding a gun to a little girls head, I walked in with my hands up, gun dangling off my fingers.

"Is it me you're looking for?" I said huskily, hoping maybe using the sex voice would distract them at least a little.

"Oh yeah. You're just the bitch I'm looking for. I thought I told you to stop digging into my affairs, bitch?" I recognized that voice and I recognized those eyes. It was Kyle Castnet.

Who else would have the balls to hold a gun on Ranger's niece?

Donnie and Alan, or who I assumed were Donnie and Alan, were fidgeting around. They were clearly uncomfortable with the whole kid at gun point business. I dropped the gun on a couch cushion, far enough away from everybody that it wouldn't make them nervous. I knew someone would get to it and that's all that mattered to me.

"Alright, I'm here. I'm cooperating. Let the girl go, Kyle."

Marcella's brown eyes were open wide and she was trying valiantly not to cry. She was channeling her uncle Carlos, it was clear to me.

"As a matter of fact, why don't you let all the kids go? There's a playroom down the hall. It's me you want."

I could see out of the corner of my eye Carlos go white as he inched his way over to the gun. The kids were slowly scooting out, after a nod from Donnie. At least I was guessing that one was Donnie. I wasn't entirely sure, because they were wearing masks that covered all but their eyes but the profile and build seemed right.

Just as I felt like I was starting to get control over the situation, everything went to shit.

 _Ranger POV_

I saw the sirens a split second before I hear them. Motherfucker, did these Newark cops know NOTHING? I had worked very carefully to provide safety measures for my parents and grandmother, and one of those measures was a notice to the PD that ANYTIME the panic button at this address rang they were to enter dark and silent. Clearly, these idiots didn't get the damn memo.

I watched as Kyle Castnet, dead man number one, finally released Marcella just to roughly grab Stephanie. I watched helplessly, as dead man number two, Alan, waved his gun around. I watched as dead man number three, Donnie, got a shot off and blood started pouring out of Stephanie's side. She cried out, and I heard another shot go off, just as the police swarmed in.

Stephanie was roughly let go as Kyle shoved her away, a look akin to horror on his face.

She shot his dick. Maybe his balls, I wasn't entire sure. As the cops stormed in, yelling for them to drop their weapons, they started shooting again.

Stephanie lurched against me, another red spot starting to stain her shoulder, and the Newark cops shot to kill. There was one ambulance already on scene and I carried Stephanie out to it, and ordered the driver to fucking move.

"My babies! Carlos, my babies!"

Stephanie was in panic mode.

"Sir, how far along is she?"

The EMT was working over her, running an IV of fluids and checking her blood pressure and pulse. I had to think, because I was having trouble getting control of myself. Think of Luca and Sophia. I took a steadying breath and swore I could feel a hand on my shoulder, but no one was there. It had a calming effect though.

"Twenty. She's twenty weeks today. Do whatever necessary to save those babies; they're the last important thing she has left of her late husband. He was a Trenton homicide detective."

I took another steadying breath. Stephanie had passed out. I watched the EMT try to staunch the blood flow from both wounds and I shuddered. She was my everything and those kids were hers. I had to make sure the three of them were okay and then I had to figure out why the Castnet's cane after her and how they found her. Then I had to figure out what we were missing in their operation. Clearly there was something.

Five agonizing hours after we arrived at Newark Hospital, Stephanie was wheeled out of surgery and into a labor and delivery room. I had called her mom and Joe's, and then I called my mom. I was praying harder than I ever had before. The doctor came out to talk to me while they were moving Stephanie to her new room, and I motioned all three mothers and grandmothers over.

"Mrs. Morelli is incredibly lucky. Both bullets missed anything serious. I'm concerned about her blood pressure, but the babies look fantastic. She hasn't had any contractions, but due to the stress she has been under I'm keeping her for twenty four hours in L&D to make sure that doesn't change. I also want to get that blood pressure down. Any questions?"

"Does it look like she has pre-eclampsia? Or is it likely just from the stress of the events this evening?," Angie Morelli asked calmly.

The doctor sighed, "I honestly couldn't tell you. It very well could be just the events but well keep an eye and monitor her closely to be sure that doesn't change. You should be able to see her soon."

We all thanked the doctor and I hugged my mom and grandma Rosa just as Abby and her boss, an Agent Gibbs, came in.

"We got something."

 _a/n2: we will see more resolutions regarding the trio of idiot brothers, but I wanted to make progress with them_


	17. UpdateNote for my Loyal Readers- Sorry

Guys, I am so sorry its been so long. I got hit by severe writers block and then my muse hit me over the head with an original story idea and I succumbed to her powers of persuasion. Not only that but my iPad is at deaths door (hopefully I'll have a new one by March 1st plus a laptop) and it keeps losing parts of this story.

I will be updating. I promise. Hopefully by the end of the week.

I am so sorry I left you guys hanging. I have some of the next chapter written.

In the meantime, I wanted to let you all know what was happening and then THANK YOU for your kind reviews because if it wasn't for you awesome folks I wouldn't have had the confidence to do this next thing I'm about to tell you about: self publish.

Im self publishing a novella on Kindle and Nook soon. I figure mid march, but I write it down in all my promos as "Spring 2017"

I wanted to thank you for that push, and provide you with the info for my promo page on Facebook which will take you to the blog and the Instagram I set up.

jrastelliauthor

Y'all know the drill- you have to put your own dots!

Thank you for reading this far, and know I'll never give up on Stephanie (or Joe or Ranger)

love them, and love you

\- J


	18. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: not mine!

a/n: So sorry this took so long. First my muse hit with me with Triumph, my debut Novella, which I have linked in my profile for those of you who might like to preorder it. It'll be out 3/31/17. Then my tablet has been going insane. It finally stopped functioning with the exception of google chrome on me on Thursday of last week, and I didn't get the new laptop until Friday afternoon which was when my dad decided to surprise me with his presence, along with that of my sister and their two dogs and they just left a few hours ago. I didn't even set the laptop up until a bit ago, and I finished Chapter Seventeen as soon as I could. Thank you for your patience.

Chapter Seventeen

 _Stephanie POV_

I woke up dazed and confused. Where was I, was I okay, what had happened? I heard the beeping first off and the thwump thwump thwump of the babies heart beats second. I tried to sit up, and Carlos was immediately by my side. He helped me into a sitting position, and then moved a rolling tray table with a big jug of water on it closer to me.

"You're okay, they're okay, everyone is okay, Babe," he told me quietly.

I nodded and just sipped my water. "What happened?"

He sighed. "You remember going to my parents for Halloween?" I nodded again, "the Castnet brothers showed up. They wanted to kidnap you or kill you, I'm really not sure."

My breath shuddered out in a sigh, and the memories came flooding back. Marcella being held, and pressing the panic button, and having the cops show up with lights flashing and sirens blaring. "Those cops were idiots. Tell me you handled them."

He just smiled at me. He had handled them. That smile was evil.

"I was shot? Did they do surgery?"

He explained that they had done surgery and that I was having my blood pressure monitored.

"How were they able to find us? Carlos, they shouldn't have been able to find us."

Ranger shuddered out a breath. "There was a hack. Into Rangeman and into the police scanners and databases. They found our car, they found us, they knew our protocol."

I was angry on Ranger's behalf.

The day after I woke up I was released from the hospital, and Ranger took me back to the home that had quickly become ours. I was cautioned to take it easy, and check my blood pressure every few hours. We wanted to keep Sophia and Luca save and sound as long as possible.

Although we had been attacked outside of that home, with Rangeman having been hacked, we didn't feel any more or less comfortable there than we did at the house.

Agent Gibbs had been working steadily over the past few weeks with the FBI and the Rangeman guys with security clearances, to figure out what had caused us to be such serious targets. Aside from finding Alicia's body, we hadn't been even remotely close to them or their operation, whatever it was.

By Christmas, we had the information we had been looking for.

Abby and Gibbs brought me in to help with research, so I wasn't stuck at home all the time, and I was the one who found the key to solving the puzzle.

During all of our research into the missing persons, we had continually run the Castnet brothers information and known associates for anything out of the ordinary. Upon a second look, I found a friend of Alicia's that had money they shouldn't have, and when I looked at the friends information, I discovered it was completely falsified. The friend didn't exist.

I then took that friends information and ran an in depth search to see if there was anything I could find out that way. That's where I hit the mother lode.

The fake friend, Elizabeth Carlisle, was married to a guy name Bennett Carlisle. Neither of them existed, but the DMV photo of Bennett matched Alan. Elizabeth Carlisle was really Alicia.

Under Bennetts name, they had purchased a plantation in southern Virginia. They had also purchased an eighteen wheeler. We found a credit card payment, an anomaly on the card itself, for a website that only operated with pass codes, and with our best hacker, Hector, we managed to find that the Castnet family had been kidnapping people all down the eastern seaboard. The website was for selling them.

They were human traffickers.

The FBI office in Richmond, Virginia, sent us all the files they put together, all the evidence they collected, from the plantation. They had found eighty one dead men, women, and children in the barn on the plantation. They'd died of starvation, probably because we shot and killed their captors and keepers.

We had so many files to go through, it would take us months. It seemed that Donnie liked to kill people, and did so once a year – he kidnapped them outside that grocery store, and he killed them.

But for now, it was Christmas, and Carlos and I were going for dinner at my parents house. Grandma Mazur was bringing a date, and Carlos had all the gifts loaded into our new SUV. Since we were living together, we had just purchased the one SUV for now, because it was getting increasingly difficult for me to drive anywhere with my belly.

Carlos had suggested giving our gifts to each other at our parents' houses, so I was giving him one today at my parents, and one tomorrow at his. His family always got together the day after Christmas, so that all the other in laws could get time together and the individual siblings could be with their families, too, without the extended commotion that comes with extended family.

 _Ranger POV_

I was very nervous. I was going to ask Stephanie to marry me, although I certainly didn't expect to ask her so soon, and I didn't expect to actually marry her for quite a while if she said yes. I'd never have felt confident enough to do it either, if Morelli hadn't shown up n yet another dream.

This time we were sitting on a bench in the park, with a little bit of snow coming down. Stephanie was there, with her hair longer than usual, flowing almost to her waist. She was pushing both the swings, and there were two beautiful children on them. Sophia looked just like Stephanie, with the exception of her coloring. Luca looked just like Joe, with the exception of his. They were all smiling and laughing, and Stephanie looked over to where I was sitting on the bench with Joe in silence.

"Watch us, Daddy! Watch us! Look how high we can go!" Luca cried out.

I heard Morelli shift beside me.

"I wanted to show you your future, if you can take the steps to get there. I had to pull in a favor to be able to give this to you, and I'm going to have to say goodbye to Stephanie quicker than I would like because of it. But those smiles over there? They're equally as important to me, although I've never met them, and hopefully won't for another eighty or ninety years."

I understood what he was telling me.

"I know you didn't handle things the way you wish you had with your daughter. I also know you're perfectly capable of being a great dad, just as great as I would have been, given the chance. Christmas Day, Ranger. At her parents. There's always gift exchanging, and it will be the right time. I need you to promise me you'll look after her, even if she says no… which she won't. She might say not right now, but she won't say no."

I didn't want to as her yet. I didn't feel like enough time had passed, no matter how much we loved each other and how often we expressed it. I watched her pushing those two babies on those swings, the babies that weren't babies but rather closer to four, five years old maybe. It dawned on me, just then, Luca had called me daddy. Morelli was right here, but Luca couldn't see him.

"I'll never stop looking after her. She's my life now. Her and those babies of yours. You're a bigger man than me because I don't know I could be sitting here in your spot if it were my kids, and me in the great beyond rather than you."

He chucked beside me, scrubbed his hand down his face.

"I'm not thrilled. But they deserve a dad, and you deserve happiness. Please… please take it, and give it."

So here I was now, after Christmas dinner at the Plum house. Grandma Mazur had brought another old geezer home, and he was deaf as a doornail and partially blind to boot. He had brought one of the best pies I'd ever eaten though, and claimed he baked it himself, so he was alright in Stephanie's book. He hadn't been as weird as some of her usual days and he kept Grandma from grabbing my package, so he cool in mine too.

Valerie and the kids weren't here, so I gave Mr and Mrs. Plum the present I had picked out for them first, and then given one to Grandma Mazur. I'd asked my men who were primarily in the office and not in the field to do a calendar, and while I was selling it for charity, I also had several copies for family and friends I knew would want it. Their faces were mostly obscured, I'd had the photographer do the photos that way, but their bodies were highlighted.

My gift to the Plums was much more simple - I'd paid off their mortgage. They'd only had one year left on it, but Frank had been talking about putting a second bathroom in after he had paid it off, and now he could do that right away. I also gave him my contractors number, and got him a discount.

Stephanie's mom gave us a handmade coupon book for free dinners and deliveries courtesy of Helen Plum, presumably to use after the babies were born. Like she wouldn't be over all the time anyway.

I opened the gift Stephanie had gotten for me first. It was a scrapbook, one of those digital ones you create and they print and bind and ship it for you. It had pictures of Julie and I in it. She had to go through a lot of trouble to get those, I was sure. Rachel was protective of both me and of Julie, although she had met Stephanie before.

Helen was looking under the tree for Stephanie's present from me, and when she couldn't find it she sent me an accusatory look.

"I've got the perfect gift for her, don't worry," I told her lightly, sliding from the sofa to one knee on the floor in front of Stephanie.

I heard gasps all around me, and Stephanie had her hands clenched up in front of her face, her eyes shining with tears and love.

"Stephanie, I know it's a little soon after everything, and we don't have to do this right away… but I love you with all that I am and I couldn't wait a day longer to ask you... will you be my wife?"

She let out a little laugh and leaned forward, kissing my forehead, my nose, my lips. I was still holding the ring box open, and I almost lost my balance when she launched herself at me.

"Yes! Yes, I'll marry you!"

a/n 2: let me tell you the story of ordering my new tablet, too, because omg it made me so mad. I ordered it Thursday with free shipping and delivery for Saturday. Never got the email it shipped. Finally Saturday morning, I use my phone to send them an IM with their support line. They inform me they haven't shipped it because they're trying to verify my card info with my personal info. I've used that account and that card for over two years. I called my bank, no problems. It was literally the company itself. So they tell me it can take almost 48 hours from time of submssion of order to process and verify. Okay. So then the 48 hours hits. I send them another IM, and they tell me not only are they unable to verify my identity but that they don't have the iPad I ordered in stock any longer and it could take them up to fifteen days to either get it to me, or cancel my order. I was like ummm no I placed the order when you had it in stock, if I give you a separate payment method, you need to get me that iPad within 3 days, since I ordered it and you had it and it's your process - which you didn't even bother to notify me about - that delayed it. They gave me a ten dollar gift card and I cancelled my order with them. I then go to purchase a refurbished iPad, for less, that insists it's in stock, and they bounce me out of purchasing it four. Times. Because of my payment information. So I call the bank again, still no problem. I finally had to create a new account just to order the stupid freaking iPad. I used the exact same payment information, too.

The problem? Tomorrow is my older sons birthday, which is actually why the family surprised me - that and they had yet to meet the twins - and my mother had wanted to buy him a gift, so she gave me her payment info and I bought it off my account then deleted the credit card information. They flagged me because my mother let me use her credit card.


	19. Epilogue

Epilogue - Five Years Later

Ranger POV

We got married a few weeks later in a quiet ceremony. It was everything Stephanie wanted, and I was so blessed to be able to be her husband. She showed me every day how much she loved me, and I reciprocated that love all the time.

Not too long after that, Stephanie gave birth early to a Luca and Sophia. It was difficult and they told her she would never be able to have any more kids. Neither she nor I were too regretful of that, all things considered. We felt lucky to have what we did.

Luca and Sophia had to spend time in the NICU, and it was during that time that I had a weird dream. Stephanie and Joe were both there, and they were embracing. Stephanie was crying, and Joe was holding onto her as though he never would get to again. He looked at me over her shoulder, and I gave him a tiny nod. I knew, then, what this was.

"I love you, Cupcake. I do. I won't be seeing you again, except in your memories. It's time for you to move on now, but I wanted to say goodbye."

"I don't want to, Joe. I'm not ready!" She sobbed.

"I know, my love, I know. But it's time. It is time. Before I go, I wanted to tell you how proud I am of you. How proud I am of our babies. They're perfect, and they're beautiful, and they'll be just fine. You'll be able to take them home tomorrow."

"I love you, too." She finally said.

He gave her one last kiss goodbye and then we were awake, her sobbing in my arms.

Now, here we are at the park. It feels like dejavu. Stephanie is pushing the twins, and Luca yells to me.

"Watch us, Daddy! Watch us. Look how high we can go!"

I am watching, from my seat on the bench. And sitting there, at my feet, is Bob and Pricilla, the Great Dane puppy Stephanie insisted on bringing home when we found her on the side of the road. They were guarding the bundle in the car seat, one very unexpected Gabrielle Rosa Morelli-Manoso. While I didn't relish Joe's name attached to mine, it was how Stephanie had changed her name. She'd hyphenated it, and the twins names, so no one would feel excluded.

My life was so much better than I had ever thought it would be.

Luca POV

I really liked swinging at the park with Mommy and Daddy and Sophie. Gabby and the doggies didn't do much, but they were cool, too. Today felt different at the park. Mommy was pushing me and Sophie and daddy was watching us all like he did a lot.

I looked up at Daddy and I saw dream Daddy sitting next to him on the bench. I know that dream Daddy was my real daddy that I never got to meet, sometimes he came and talked to me. Sophie and I did the thought thing, and I could hear her tell me she saw him too.

We didn't tell our mommy or daddy about dream Daddy, because we didn't want to hurt their feelings, but we really loved when he visited us in our dreams. This was the first time we saw him in person, and not when we were sleeping or in the pictures mommy and daddy kept around the house.

I love you, dream Daddy, I thought.

Then I yelled out to him, "watch us daddy, watch us! Look how high we can go!"

I could hear him answer in my thoughts.

"I see! I see, my bambinos! I love you both and I am so proud of you, proud of the little people you are becoming. Luca, you do such a good job watching over your sisters, and Sophia, my sweetheart, you're so kind to your animals. Bob is old now, and he loves it when you pet his ears. Keep being good for your mommy and your other Daddy, okay? It might be awhile before you see me again, but I'm always in your heart. Always with you. And if you ever really need me, I will be there."

He blew us a kiss from behind the bench, and then he was gone, with one sat lingering thought.

Even when tragedy strikes, something beautiful can still be built to last.

 **A/N: thank you for sticking with me, everybody. I was reading back through this, and I decided this would be the perfect place to end it. It is how I originally planned on it ending, although I had also originally planned on more content after the proposal. Thank you for sticking with me through this journey, and I hope you really enjoyed this.**

 **I want to add that I have my own self published novella, which I will warn now has storing language, releasing as an ebook on 3-31 via Amazon, B &N, iBooks, kobo book, and smashwords. Other ebook retailers, too, but those are the main ones. Feel free to follow me on Facebook as well at J. Rastelli Author Page. **

**I love fanfic and the other ones I have started I will keep going, I won't abandon them. Love and light to all you wonderful folks who read and reviewed and messaged.**

 **~ J**


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